Halifax based award winning songwriter Joel Plaskett is starting to make a name for himself as a producer as well.
He won producer of the year at the this year’s East Coast Music Awards for his work with a variety of musicians including Juno award winner James Hale, Old Man Luedecke, the Great Big Sea’s Sean McCann and Plaskett’s tour mate Mo Kenney.
He plays the University Theatre, May 10 as part of the Geomatic Attic’s university concert series.
Somewhere along the way he found time to record his latest album Park Avenue Sobriety Test or PAST.
“I’m not sure which project I won for,” he said taking a break from producing before hitting the road in support of the new CD with band mates, bassist Dave Marsh, bassist Chris Pennell and keyboardist John Boudreau and Mo Kenney, who will be opening all of the shows on the tour.
“I’ve learned a lot from working with all of these people, little tricks I can use in my own music,” he said adding he is pleased so many of the people he has worked with have returned to get second albums done with him and there's always other people, like his friend Shotgun Jimmie, who he’d like to work with.
“It’s been really busy, but I’m going to put a pause on that to support my new album,” he said.
“It’s given me the confidence to record most of this album live off the floor. We’d put six or seven people on the floor and just see what happens. So we recorded two thirds of the album live off the floor and I even kept most of my vocal takes ,” he enthused. He is pleased with the new record, which he released on March 17.
“ I’m really pleased with it. We got a lot of friends and a lot of great players on it,” he said.
“ It’s funny, that went into the press release before I even heard of it,” he said.
“I wasn’t actually thinking about turning 40, he said.
“It is more or less just looking back. It’s a retrospective. It’s reminiscing. It’s about coming to terms with living in a pretty imperfect world,” he said.
“The rich are still getting richer and the poorer are still getting poorer, but there’s also a lot of people who are far worse off then we are,” he said adding the new music examines not letting all of the negativity in the world bring you down.
“There’s still a lot of rally against,” he said adding the music also reflects the diversity of his music career.
“I have 20 different people on the CD. So I was either going to have a really great CD or at least it would be a really expensive party,” he said.
He said the live show will mostly include the new music, but will also include some of the highlights of his career.
“The challenge of having eight or nine records is just doing a 90 minute or two hour set. I’m really excited about introducing the new music. Most of it hasn't even been road tested. I think that’s when they really come to life,” he said.
He has lots of good memories of Lethbridge shows.
“ I have a few good memories. I remember the really wide streets and shows at the Tongue N Groove. I remember one time I had played the night before and everybody was partying. When I came back the next morning, they were all asleep on the couch and the music was still blasting,” he said.
“I also remember that super cool bus terminal downtown,” he said.
Tickets for the show cost $35. The show begins at University Theatre, May 10 at 8 p.m.
A version of this story appears in the May 6, 2105 edition of the Lethbridge Sun Times
