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The Guardian (Charlottetown, PEI) - September 15, 2006
Manitoba band teaming up with Island singer at Baba's
Five-piece roots outfit coming to 'work' in the region for the first time.
The Dust Poets, one of Manitoba's hottest and most geographically challenged folk-pop groups, are bringing their songwriting and wit to Charlottetown audiences Monday. The group is part of a double bill featuring Island talent Catherine MacLellan on Monday at Baba's Lounge in Charlottetown.
The five-piece roots outfit formed in Brandon, Man., five years ago, and has been touring most of Canada and parts of the U.S. ever since. Though it's their first working trip to Atlantic Canada, they count a new Maritimer in their membership - mandolinist Corey Ticknor moved to Sackville, N.B., from Manitoba a year ago. "Over the years we've played from Montreal to Vancouver Island and all points between," said Ticknor. "We've always wanted to play the East Coast to check out its legendary music scene."
The Dust Poets are no strangers to long commutes - while Ticknor lives in New Brunswick, Sean McManus, Karla Ferguson, and Gord Mowat all reside in Toronto, leaving lead singer Murray Evans to tend the prairie ties back in Manitoba.
MacLellan has quickly established herself as a rising star on the East Coast music scene. Her brand-new CD Church Bell Blues builds on her ECMA-nominated debut album Dark Dream Midnight, which also received four nominations for the 2005 P.E.I. Music Awards and won two awards for best folk album and female vocalist of the year.
The Dust Poets' edgy new CD follows a pair of critically acclaimed and award-nominated albums released under their previous band name das macht SHOW. The new songs on Lovesick Town revel in twisted caricatures of smalltown life and big-city delusions. Critics are hailing the disc as a "clever, wonderfully musical album" (Uptown) and "a little masterpiece" (Toronto Star).
Ranging in tone from the darkly humourous to the achingiy tender, veteran songwriter Murray Evans finds a fertile muse in the everyday absurdity of life in a small prairie town. "Themes of wanderlust, love, and boredom run through the writing and tie the songs together, but if you are looking to slot the Dust Poets into an easy genre category, you might find it more challenging," said a press releasepromoting the show. The musically restless Dust Poets have created arrangements that wander easily among different styles, including gritty folk-rock, coun-try-bluegrass, and soaring piano pop, says the news release.
"It is all held together with an acoustic line-up of guitar, bass, mandolin, accordion, and clarinet, topped with effortlessly smooth four-part vocals."