Toronto’s Slocan Ramblers have a new album, Queen City Jubilee, set to drop on Wednesday, and have agreed to let us premiere a track for our readers here at Bluegrass Today.
The band consists of Frank Evans on banjo and vocals, Adrian Gross on mandolin, Alastair Whitehead on bass, and Darryl Poulson on guitar.
The track is one called Through and Through, an uptempo grasser about loyalty and true love, which Evans says was the first song he has sung which he didn’t write.
“When Adrian brought Though and Through to the band I was really excited to start playing it. In the past, who ever wrote the song was the person who sang it, but this was the first time we tried to match the right voice with the right song. It was interesting to learn how Adrian had pictured the phrasing of each line. After arranging the whole thing it felt as if I had borrowed his ears for a couple of hours. We wanted to leave the arrangement fairly simple so the story would stand out on its own. It’s one of my favorite songs on the album – it has an old sound but it’s uniquely modern in its own way.”
Look for Queen City Jubilee on Wednesday, June 15, wherever you buy music, or from the band’s web site.
The band starts a US tour tomorrow through the 24th in support of the new record.
