Erin Propp & Larry Roy: We Want All The Same Things
Chronograph Records

Nine years on from their Juno Award-nominated debut collection Courage, My Love, Winnipeg-based collaborators Erin Propp and Larry Roy present We Want All The Same Things. Of its dozen pieces (one a bonus), seven were co-written by the vocalist and guitarist, with songs by Carole King and Lauryn Hill and a jazz standard among the others. Building on a foundation of vocals, guitar, keyboards (Will Bonness), drums (Larnell Lewis), and acoustic bass (Julian Bradford, Mike Downes, Karl Kohut), Propp and Roy flesh out their music with horn, woodwinds, and percussion. While Shannon Kristjanson, Jimmy Greene, Steve Wilson, and Ken Gold contribute flute, clarinet, and saxophone, horn textures come from Joel Green, Derrick Gardner, and Miron Rafajlovic; Joey Landreth (slide guitar) and Rogerio Boccato (percussion) also appear.

Listening to the album, impressions quickly crystallize. For starters, there's the considerable range of the material, with everything from a folk traditional and soulful pop to intimate jazz on offer, plus the assurance with which the versatile duo meet that challenge. The care given to the arrangements also registers, with some songs presented in a stripped-down form that accentuates the appealing naturalness of Propp's voice and others elaborately filled out to an almost orchestral degree. Each song is handled with care, nuance and clarity are paramount, and the songs beckon the listener with the sincerity of their lyrical and musical expression.

We Want All The Same Things quickly seduces with the lilt of “Each Hidden Joy” and the lustre of Propp's voice. Like the warmest of breezes, the song casts an entrancing spell thanks to her wordless undulations, Roy's jazz-tinged solo, and the South American flavourings Boccato brings to the arrangement with triangle and other percussion sweetening. The swinging feel reemerges in the later “Recomeçar,” with this time electric piano adding to the tropical enticement. You might find yourself reminded of Joni's “Chelsea Morning” when “Hello Morning” exudes a similarly warm embrace of a new day's possibilities; adding to its appeal are a soprano sax solo from Greene and dobro textures from Roy. A natural single, “Farther On” segues from soothing verses to a soaring chorus, the song's funky blues-rock bolstered by Landreth's slide guitar and Lewis's attack. Rivaling it for possible radio play is “Give Me More” for the earworm of its chorus (“Come on over and live a little, come on over and give / Come on over and give a little, come on over and live”).

While Propp imbues the duo's version of Hill's “Tell Him”with an appropriate soulfulness, Roy elevates it with a blistering electric solo. King's “So Far Away” is given an earnest reading faithful to the original, though Propp and Roy do work a bit of jazz flavour into the treatment. For that matter, King could conceivably have been the composer behind the folk-jazz reverie “We Want All the Same Things,” given how effectively the duo evokes the melodic splendour that distinguishes Tapestry. For Carmichael and Washington's “The Nearness of You,”the two wrap Propp's breathy vocal in a sultry arrangement of muted horns, brushed drums, and jazz guitar. Though it's accorded “bonus” status, the traditional “À la Claire Fontaine” is one of the album's most stirring pieces, thanks to its abundant musical charm and Propp's heartfelt rendering of its French lyrics (e.g., “Il y a longtemps que je t'aime, jamais je ne t'oublierai”).

May 2021