Toronto based folk/roots band The Strumbellas are “genuinely excited ” about their first tour out west, which brings them to Lethbridge, Monday, June 4.
So much so they made a tour video featuring the band members talking about each of the cities.
“I love making movies, so we thought we’d make a video about each city. The Saskatoon clip, I knew the band member couldn’t spell Saskatchewan.
For Lethbridge, Dave the harmony guy loves R. Kelly and Lethbridge just seemed to fit,” said singer/ guitarist Simon Ward, noting the video says to fit into Lethbridge culture, you have to be able to sing R Kelly’s “Ignition” on the spot. Winnipeg actually got an entire song.
“We couldn’t think about what to say about Winnipeg and it was the last one so we wanted to make it special,” he said adding while the band is looking forward to touring out west, they were’t looking forward to the “three or four hour drive” from Toronto to Winnipeg, before stopping himself.
“We’re going to really book it and get out there in two days,” he enthused.
They were waiting to do a tour like this until they completed their first CD, “My Father and the Hunter”
It features a lot of upbeat, country/ bluegrass/ folk style originals with huge choruses and lots of harmonies,
“Our harmony guy Dave (Ritter, who also plays piano, organ and percussion) loves harmonies. His favourite band is the Beach Boys,” he enthused.
The band also features the vocals and multi instrumental talent of drummer Jeremy Drury, Isabel Ritchie (viola and violin and vocals), Jon Hembrey (electric guitar and mandolin) and bassist Darryl James.
“We’re super excited about it. It was an intense experience because we had seven cooks in the kitchen. There was conflict, but good conflict,” he continued, adding the band worked at this Cd for the better part of two years. They whittled down a collection of 20-15 songs down to the 11 that appear on the CD.
“We’ve been a band for three and a half years and we’d play shows and we’d always get people coming up to us asking if we have an album. Well, now we do, here it is,” he enthused.
“This was the first time we had money behind us and a real producer in a real studio,” he said.
“I felt new and green going into the studio, I think everybody did. I didn’t have a vision for this CD,” he said agreeing the music has a Shins/ Great Lake Swimmers feel to it.
“I love that stuff, just chilled out stuff so that’s my vision for the second album,” he said.
He noted the songs include some brand new songs which were written in the studio and other older song the band has been playing for a couple years. Others, like the up beat lead track “Sheriff,” started slowly and built up the energy.
“That started as a solo acoustic number. I took it back to my home town and recorded it at home, but I brought it in and they said, let’s make it faster,” he continued.
In the meantime, now their debut CD is out, they can’t wait to see the west.
“ I’m looking forward to everything. We’ve heard the prairies are so pristine all the way to the mountains,” he enthused.
“We’re all really excited about it,” he said. They are looking forward to the Lethbridge stop.
We are just going to play our hearts out,” he said.
There is an eight dollar cover for the show which begins at 9 p.m.
