Dartmouth, Nova Scotia songwriter Joel Plaskett spreads his wings and flies through a variety of influences on this new triple CD ‘Three.’
The first track from the first Cd, ‘Every time You Leave’  lays down a mid  ’70s Canned Heat country rock type of groove which carries  on throughout and I absolutely love backup singers Rose Cousins and Ana Egge who add a really cool vocal dimension to the tracks.
 A line from the second  track on the first CD, ‘Through and Through and Through’— “Good things come in threes” summarizes the concept of the CD.
 Most of the song titles are  three words repeated and of course there are three CDs. The first three  tracks are pretty upbeat pop rockers, then  Plaskett launches into  ‘Pine, Pine, Pine’ which is a bona fide country song, but sounds like it is being sung by the Northern Pikes.
One of the other huge highlights from the first CD is ‘Wishful Thinking’ which is another upbeat rocker with an understated country shuffle and some more superb harmonized back up vocals from Ana and Rose.
A cool feature is all three discs have their own individual liner notes, telling you who is performing on the tracks.
 Big Sugar’s Gordie Johnson helped produce and mix this epic, but doesn’t actually play on it other than stomping cowboy boots on a track or two.
The second CD starts pretty slow with ‘Safe in Your Arms,’  lending itself well to the more roots and traditional Celtic and folk sound. Plaskett’s dad, Bill, plays a prominent role on the second CD with a couple of co-writes, plus he adds some bouzouki and piano.
 The Celtic feel  and whistles of ’Sailor’s Eyes’ is  a definite highlight of the second CD, as is  “Heartless, Heartless, Heartless” which is one of the songs Plaskett wrote with his dad.
Demons is another pretty Celtic tinged number featuring some gorgeous pipes.
The third CD is a combination of rock and country with a bit of bluegrass thrown in for variety.
 One of my favourites is ‘Rollin’, Rollin’, Rollin’, which is powered by a deadly rolling banjo line and some marvelous mandolin played by folk icon J.P Cormier. There are a couple catchy numbers including ‘Deny, Deny, Deny,” and others which include a bit of keyboards for variety,quite of few of which include keyboards.
Thanks to the cornucopia of styles and beautiful melodies, there is pretty much something for everyone on ‘Three.’

CDl Three
Artist: Joel Plaskett
Genre: folk/pop
Record Company: Maple Music

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