B.C based country/ roots musician Steve Brockley is excited about “ Le Boeuf,” the second CD from his band, which was officially released April 16.
“We definitely gave ourselves a lot more time to record this album and to make sure the sounds sounded good,” said Brockley from Winnipeg, where he is mid-way through a cross Canada tour in support of the new CD. They have already been from B.C. to Montreal and are making their way westward where they will be stopping at the Slice, May 15.
They were last in Lethbridge last summer.
“We’re playing all of the new songs and some songs from the first album. And because we have a lot more gigs under our belt even over the past month, the tour will be in full swing so we’ll definitely be firing on all cylinders,” he said.
“ We’re excited to show the new stuff. Last time we were in Lethbridge, everything broke. My car broke, my guitar broke and I broke one of my pedals, so it was a bit of a scramble, but a lot of folks came forward to help out. It’s going to be a lot of fun,” he continued.
He is pleased with the new music, which ranges from softer, singer songwriter material full of fascinating metaphors like on “(Grandpa Was a ) Classic Car,” honky tonk country songs, slower folk songs and even a seven minute long epic called Captain Joe, which uses a shipboard mutiny as a metaphor for the government today.
“It is definitely the longest song I ever wrote. It has seven verses. It’s a metaphor, it isn’t a true story. it’s a political song and I don’t do political songs usually. The 13 sea men represent the 13 provinces, I guess. It’s just stuff I feel about the conservative government,” he said.
On the other hand “Classic Car,” at a succinct three minutes long, is based on his grandpa.
“He died when I was 12. I just came up with the chorus and wrote it from there,” he said.
While Boots and Tattoos” has the most honky tonk sounding name, he said it is one of the more rock influenced songs on the CD.
“‘If You Let Her’ is more of a honky tonk song,” he said.
“ I have a lot of musical influences and a lot of those styles are here. It definitely wasn’t deliberate. I just wanted to strive to be true to the sounds I heard in my head and just go with it. I didn’t want to stifle the creative process by saying this song is too country, or this song is too rock or anything,” he said.
The tour is going well.
“It’s been good. We’re excited to be playing the new music. We’re getting the CD into the hands of a lot of people. It’s been really encouraging. People have responded to something we put so much time into,” he said.
“ For the last album, we wanted to get everything recorded and mixed in two days. This time we took two weeks to do all of those things,” he said.
Redrum Triumph open the show, which begins at 9 p.m. There is a $10 cover.
