GORDIE TENTREES – NORTH COUNTRY HEART
2012 – Self Released
4****
Gordie Tentrees is a man who doesn’t fit easily into any particular genre, with his ability to play hard country music, country rock, blues, a little folksiness and even on this album a track that is pretty close to cowpunk! He is too close to all of these generic fields to call a ‘roots rocker’ so perhaps we have to settle for ‘alt. country plus,’ as he often finds himself at least around the edges of this catchall phrase! Maybe his style, that seems to draw it’s influences from so many directions is the reward and consequence of living in the Yukon for fourteen years and continuing to live and often work in that remote area of Canada, (just under half a million square kilometers and a population in 2006 of less than 31,000!) although his working platform now
extends to much of planet Earth! Certainly some of his influences can be worked out but as with most talented artists he has adapted them to suit his own individuality, engendering the broad soundscapes so evocative of the wide open spaces from whence he comes, throughout much of this album.
His vocals are warm and pleasantly expressive but he is also capable of adding plenty of grit when required. The variety of styles and his songwriting on this recording, as on previous albums, is always excellent. The difference is that the previous albums (that I’ve actually heard), seem to have slightly less stylistic variations, added to which North Country Heart really does seem to
have as a loose theme his home territory, giving it more of an air of mystery.
This is the fifth album by a man who really should be a household name thanks to the excellence of his vocal and writing skills and his ability to create atmospheres and arrangements perfectly suited to his writing, something not all great singer songwriters are able to master. The fact that he isn’t a household name is certainly not a reflection on his talent, he has more than his
fair share of that, but certainly reflects badly on record companies and ‘country music’fans, who go for nice safe music rather than something that actually needs listening to in depth and might actually provoke some thought! He is assisted on this recording by Juno award winning producer Bob Hamilton and some tremendous musicians, Ken Hermanson on banjo, lap steel, guitar, Bob Hamilton, upright bass, pedal steel guitar, Patrick Hamilton on drums, Annie Avery plays piano and organ and Sarah Macdougall on backup vocals, a lineup that handles the variety of styles and tempos with ease, from gorgeous slow ballads to uptempo bluesy rockers.
His songs are rewarding to unravel, and varied, with just about every one having a memorable melody. Album opener Gypsy Windis a tremendous country song with acoustic guitar and atmospheric harmonica with nice intermittent twang and slide guitar. Atmospherically it has that lonesome wide open space feel on a tale of lost love and it’s repercussions. A really sad, haunting story about someone with few options. This is followed by the just as excellent, if stylistically entirely different, deep bluesy rock of Wheel and Wrench followed in turn by North Country Heart a song that verges on cowpunk! It is a really good powerful sounding song that has the speedy drumming and bass of cowpunk, a gorgeous steel guitar giving a further lift, added to some dirty sounding twang on a story and atmosphere rooted in the Yukon! Holy Moly is an excellent slow moody acoustic country song with a tremendously evocative banjo on a sad lost love story mixed in with a murder ballad. This variety of themes and styles continues throughout the album, always underpinned by the high quality writing, vocals and playing.
Gordie Tentrees is rooted in country or at least alt. country, but with the diversity of styles within the genre, his influences and his geographic location making him pretty much unique. That
certainly doesn’t guarantee success, but in this case it should do.
http://www.tentrees.ca/wp
Released in Europe and UK on Sept.10th. Gordie is touring the U.K. towards the end of the year and is playing in Brighton on a Wildwood promotion on the 29th November.
4****
Gordie Tentrees is a man who doesn’t fit easily into any particular genre, with his ability to play hard country music, country rock, blues, a little folksiness and even on this album a track that is pretty close to cowpunk! He is too close to all of these generic fields to call a ‘roots rocker’ so perhaps we have to settle for ‘alt. country plus,’ as he often finds himself at least around the edges of this catchall phrase! Maybe his style, that seems to draw it’s influences from so many directions is the reward and consequence of living in the Yukon for fourteen years and continuing to live and often work in that remote area of Canada, (just under half a million square kilometers and a population in 2006 of less than 31,000!) although his working platform now
extends to much of planet Earth! Certainly some of his influences can be worked out but as with most talented artists he has adapted them to suit his own individuality, engendering the broad soundscapes so evocative of the wide open spaces from whence he comes, throughout much of this album.
His vocals are warm and pleasantly expressive but he is also capable of adding plenty of grit when required. The variety of styles and his songwriting on this recording, as on previous albums, is always excellent. The difference is that the previous albums (that I’ve actually heard), seem to have slightly less stylistic variations, added to which North Country Heart really does seem to
have as a loose theme his home territory, giving it more of an air of mystery.
This is the fifth album by a man who really should be a household name thanks to the excellence of his vocal and writing skills and his ability to create atmospheres and arrangements perfectly suited to his writing, something not all great singer songwriters are able to master. The fact that he isn’t a household name is certainly not a reflection on his talent, he has more than his
fair share of that, but certainly reflects badly on record companies and ‘country music’fans, who go for nice safe music rather than something that actually needs listening to in depth and might actually provoke some thought! He is assisted on this recording by Juno award winning producer Bob Hamilton and some tremendous musicians, Ken Hermanson on banjo, lap steel, guitar, Bob Hamilton, upright bass, pedal steel guitar, Patrick Hamilton on drums, Annie Avery plays piano and organ and Sarah Macdougall on backup vocals, a lineup that handles the variety of styles and tempos with ease, from gorgeous slow ballads to uptempo bluesy rockers.
His songs are rewarding to unravel, and varied, with just about every one having a memorable melody. Album opener Gypsy Windis a tremendous country song with acoustic guitar and atmospheric harmonica with nice intermittent twang and slide guitar. Atmospherically it has that lonesome wide open space feel on a tale of lost love and it’s repercussions. A really sad, haunting story about someone with few options. This is followed by the just as excellent, if stylistically entirely different, deep bluesy rock of Wheel and Wrench followed in turn by North Country Heart a song that verges on cowpunk! It is a really good powerful sounding song that has the speedy drumming and bass of cowpunk, a gorgeous steel guitar giving a further lift, added to some dirty sounding twang on a story and atmosphere rooted in the Yukon! Holy Moly is an excellent slow moody acoustic country song with a tremendously evocative banjo on a sad lost love story mixed in with a murder ballad. This variety of themes and styles continues throughout the album, always underpinned by the high quality writing, vocals and playing.
Gordie Tentrees is rooted in country or at least alt. country, but with the diversity of styles within the genre, his influences and his geographic location making him pretty much unique. That
certainly doesn’t guarantee success, but in this case it should do.
http://www.tentrees.ca/wp
Released in Europe and UK on Sept.10th. Gordie is touring the U.K. towards the end of the year and is playing in Brighton on a Wildwood promotion on the 29th November.