Old Man Luedecke explores domestic bliss on sixth CD

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Nova Scotia folk musician and banjo picker Old Man Luedecke aka Chris Luedecke spent a snowy winter locked away in an old cabin outside of his home in Chester, Nova Scotia recording a new CD  all about the joys of being at home with the wife and kids.


Old Man Luedecke made the long list for the 2015 Polaris Prize. Photo by Scott Blackburn The result is Luedecke's sixth album “ Domestic Eccentric” — an intimate and sparse 14 track affair recorded live off the floor with a few friends including long time collaborator Tim O’ Brien.


“Over the past few years, I’ve been on the road and at home raising three kids aged 0-4. I always look for the best songs and started with a  core of three songs (The Early Days, Now We Got A Kitchen and The Briar and the  Rose) that influenced the rest of the album. And I found I had a whole bunch of songs about that period,” said Luedecke, enjoying some quality home time before crossing Canada and home again plus a few American stops to support the CD including a stop at the Slice, Aug. 5.


“ I have a pretty good family situation here. I’ve got  10 acres and a beautiful family,” he said.
“ We tried to have children  for a while, then we had one and another right after,” he said.
“ And now I have three beautiful girls.”

He also has a pretty nice professional situations as he not only made the 105 Polaris Prize long list, but a has also won two Juno Awards.

He said it has been a while since he played in Lethbridge.
 “ I have not played there since 2007. I think it was a place called the Tongue N’ Groove. Across from a  Chinese market,” he recalled.
He is pleased with his seventh CD.


“This is a return to where I started — just me playing with my friends. Which is what I’m known for,” said Luedecke, who  has won two Juno awards for his music since beginning his music career.
 He also added  crowd pleaser ‘Yodelady’ which he  has been performing pretty much since he started playing back in 2004 which, though it had never been recorded, has become an audience favourite.
Friends like Grammy award winning multi-instrumentalist Tim O’ Brien and drummer Nick Halley, who plays with  James Taylor and vocalist Jennah Barry all came to the cabin to record.
 It took a lot of work to do the project.


“I recorded the last album in Nashville, but I wanted to record this one here. But that meant I spent a year seeing if it  would work to record in the cabin, then I had to build a road to it to get all of the equipment  in,” he said adding his kids weren’t underfoot during the process.

“It’s a pretty small space. And they couldn’t get through the snow,” he chuckled, adding he would love to record in the cabin again, but the new CD just came out on Friday, July 24.

 


As much as he enjoys being at home with his family, he enjoys being on tour just as much.
“ Whenever I write a  song, I immediately want to play it for other people, he said, adding he has no secret to balancing   being at home and a touring.


 

“ It’s a consequence of what I do — being away a lot,” he said.


 He didn’t grow up with folk, traditional and country music.
“ Definitely not. My dad played piano, but he likes opera. I discovered folk music in university,” he said, adding as soon as he heard the banjo, he knew he wanted to play.


“It’s a pretty cool instrument. When I heard it, it was transformative. It was different. It was just far enough out in left field,” he said.


“ It just seems  more real and less corruptible,” he said.


 Old Man Luedecke plays the Slice, Aug. 5 with  multi-instrumentalist Joel Hunt who joins him on this tour, which also includes a stop at the Twin Butte General store, Aug. 6.
 The show at the Slice, Aug. 5 begins at 9 p.m.
 Tickets cost $10 in advance $15 at the door.

— By Richard Amery, L.A. Beat Editor
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