Recording: Eric Landry

Artist: Eric Landry

Songs: unknown + The Life I've Never Had^*

Recorded at Matt Cohen Park, August 8, 2017.

Eric Landry - unknown

Eric Landry - The Life I've Never Had

A truly historic night, the Native North America Gathering brought together ten musicians whose early works had been a part of 2014's epic Native North America, Vol. 1 compilation. A smaller group had assembled at last summer's Winnipeg Folk festival, but this event was truly unprecedented both in scale and sheer joy-inducing wonder. Over the course of the evening, the musicians were constrained to short mini-sets, so it's no surprise that some of them had some more music to share. Closing out the night, Willie Thrasher told the crowd in Trinity-St Paul's to wait outside after the concert finished for some a special outdoor after-show, and indeed once the crowds had dispersed, a small group headed over to the corner of Bloor + Spadina and settled in for what turned out to be over an hour-plus kitchen-style hootenanny. Leland Bell, Willy Mitchell, Willie Thrasher and Eric Landry all pulled out their guitars, sang some and pitched in on each other's songs, though the latter two were the most eager to keep playing.

So many of the musicians at this concert were a revelation to see live, but getting to hear more music from Eric Landry was a real eye-opener. With his cosmic curiosity and occasional flashes of a grim ecological apocalypse, one got the sense that here was a true peer to songwriters like Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Neil Young. Based out of Sudbury, Landry is not so far away from T.O as some of the other performers at this show, so I'm glad to hear there's already people clamouring for him to get his own solo gig here in town.

[Do note that the these are rough field recordings captured on a busy street corner without amplification, so they're a little more lo-fi than usual. As for the main concert itself, the night was taped for broadcast by the CBC, so keep an eye out for news of when you can hear some pristine sounds from the night.]

^* Does anyone know the title to these? I'm somewhat confident in the second one, but not the first. Please leave a comment if you know them!