Montreal pop/ country band The Ladies of the Canyon are enjoying spreading their beautiful vocal harmonies and sense of humour across the country during their third or fourth cross-Canada tour, which brings them to the Tongue N Groove, May 20.
The latest leg of the latest tour is with Old Man Luedecke.
“It’s been a pleasure and an education,” said Ladies of the Canyon keyboardist/ guitarist /vocalist Maia Davies en route to several Vancouver Island tour dates.
“He’s such a great songwriter like John Prine and he’s so funny. I’m learning a lot from him just watching him. He’s always making people laugh,” she continued, praising Old Man Luedecke.
The Ladies of the Canyon are no strangers to cracking up audiences and themselves on stage.
“ It’s going to be crazy. You are just going to have to come and see. Our shows are part comedy, part music. We put it all together and usually start laughing when we get together,” she continued.
And while Luedecke won’t be coming to Lethbridge they are looking forward to returning to Lethbridge for the first time in two years when they played the Slice.
“Yeah, we’re excited to play there. I was in Alberta for business a couple months ago and stopped by the Tongue N’ Groove. I’m looking forward to playing there. I’ve heard the food is excellent,” she said.
Vocal harmonies are an important part of the Ladies of the Canyon’s music. They worked hard at them first
“At first, we just started hanging out together and it was just us and Anna’s stand up bass and we filled up the empty spaces with our voices. So the harmonies became instinctual,” Davies continued.
While the four Ladies, Davies plus Senja Sargeant on vocals, guitar and mandolin; vocalist and bassist Anna Ruddick and guitarist/ vocalist Jasmine Bleile trade lead vocals on the songs, Davies’ songs ended up being darker themed like “No Deliverance” and “War and Glory.”
“Well, I’m not the first country singer to sing about dark themes. I’m just fascinated by the darker side of life and sadness and looking for the deeper truths behind them,” she said.
But you don’t want to break these ladies’ hearts, because you might end up in one of their songs or having your phone number given to the audience.
“We have a new song it is actually about somebody. We used his real name and we titled it after him. There’s no shame. We’ll take our revenge,” she chuckled adding they will be playing a couple new songs as well as the music from their CD.
Their single “Follow Me Down” from their debut CD “Haunted Woman” can be heard on the local country music station. They are beginning work on the follow up.
“We’ve just started the writing process. We’ve had a couple writing sessions in Nashville and New York,” she continued.
“The process is different for all of us. We’re all in different stages of our careers. I spent a lot of time thinking about my songs. I wanted to write in the old country style, so I did a lot of research. Now I do a lot more writing from the heart. I guess I’m just more inspired or something,” she said.
