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Album reviews Music

Banded Stilts – By The Back Stair

BANDED STILTS play Slack’s tonight (Thursday, July 7) and the Tranzac Friday (July 8). See Slack’s listing See Tranzac listing Rating: NNNN


It’s not often you hear of bands hailing from Amherst, a town barely on the Nova Scotia side of the New Brunswick border and close to Springhill, aka Anne Murray country. Steve Haley lives there now, but it’s actually his Newfoundland roots that seem to inform his five-piece Banded Stilts.

On this six-song EP, Haley employs the robust melodic baritone, full-band energy and folk instrumentation – mandolin, banjo, violin, etc – of Great Big Sea. But he combines it with an introspective edge, Neil Young straightforwardness (and harp) and woodsy imagery that indicates time spent with Bon Iver and Great Lake Swimmers albums.

It’s an effective sound that adds muscle – and great songs – to the genre without ever spinning off into a mindless, drunken kitchen party.

Top track: Flee Into The Autumn Dark

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