After crisscrossing North America and Europe, Yukon roots singer and songwriter Gordie Tentrees has set his sights on Western Canada to promote his sixth album Less is More.
Freshly off his album’s release, he hasn’t let up with 19 shows planned over a 19-day period, including Jasper, on May 4 at the Olive Bistro and Lounge.
“I’m really excited to come back to Jasper,” said Tentrees, who has played in town five times over the past decade.
“I’m really looking forward to sharing my new album with people there and seeing some familiar faces.”
Blending folk, roots and blues, Tentrees shares 11 touching tracks that run the gamut of human emotion.
After writing nearly 30 tracks for the new album, he whittled it down to 11 songs before producing it.
The keepers include songs such as “Somebody’s Child”, which he wrote after watching the bombs go off at the Boston Marathon in 2013, wondering whether his wife had safely crossed the finish line.
“I was there watching my wife run the race and I went to pick her up at the finish line and I was four blocks away and I saw both bombs go off and I hadn’t found her yet,” said Tentrees.
“I didn’t know if she was still running, if she had finished or if she was hurt.”
As fate would have it, his wife finished the race nine minutes before the deadly terrorist attack.
“Nine minutes is not a long time. I could have been going back to Canada alone.”
Other notable songs on the album include the crowd pleaser “Dead Beat Dad” and the gentle finger picking “Wheel Girl.”
With the help of his Juno award winning producer, Bob Hamilton, Tentrees brings his music to life using several unconventional instruments such as a dobro, porchboard bass and a cigar box guitar.
The album also features several guest musicians, including Patrick Hamilton, Annie Avery, Lonnie Powell and the voice of east coast darling Catherine MacLellan, the 2015 Juno award winner for the best roots and traditional album of the year.
The album also carries a song called “Camelot Hotel” written by American folk singer, Mary Gauthier.
Opening each show on the tour is Jaxon Haldane, former front man for the Canadian band the D-Rangers. Haldane also joins Tentrees on stage playing the banjo, mandolin, fiddle saw and cigar box guitar.
The Canadian leg of Tentrees’ tour wraps up in Calgary on May 11, with upcoming performance dates still to be announced in the United States, Australia, UK and Europe.
His Jasper show starts at 8 p.m. on May 4 and tickets are $10 at the door.
Paul Clarke
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