Stranger Still: The Songs Which Are
All-Set! Editions
Always open to adventurous and sometimes off-the-wall projects, All-Set! Editions presents the latest from Toronto-based Pete Johnston, whose usual jazz-focused music shifts to folk for The Songs Which Are. Whereas his See Through outfit features him playing double bass alongside highly regarded players such as trumpeter Lina Allemano and drummer Nick Fraser, Stranger Still has him wielding acoustic guitar (electric also, plus banjo and vocals) and partnering with string bassist Rob Clutton and singers Mim Adams and Randi Helmers on a folk song project grounded in the words of Maritime poet Alden Nowlan (1933-83). Contributing organ and vocals, Andrew Killawee also appears on the release.
As someone who grew up in Nova Scotia before decamping for Toronto, Johnston's more than familiar with the world associated with Nowlan's writing. The Songs Which Are is, in fact, the second Stranger Still album, the first arriving in 2019 under the title Songs of Bread, Wine and Salt, and as such reflects a maturing of the project's vision. The eleven songs exude the feel of musical partners comfortably inhabiting a zone that's grown increasingly theirs.
It's not inaccurate to regard the project as an homage to Johnston's East Coast origins, even if comparisons could be made between Stranger Still and legendary across-the-pond outfits Steeleye Span and Fairport Convention. That's warranted especially in those moments where faint echoes of Renaissance and Celtic musics arise. Certainly the character and subject matter of the poems by Nowlan, a Governor General's Award recipient and long-time writer-in-residence at the University of New Brunswick, are pivotal to Stranger Still's identity too (all of the texts come from the book Collected Poems of Alden Nowlan). Poems about Icarus, hospital stays, animals, and sundry life experiences make for always engaging lyric content. Fittingly, The Songs Which Are was recorded at Fang Recording in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.
Even if your listening taste doesn't gravitate to folk, the intimate charm of the material entices. “Snapshot” makes that clear at the outset when the singers intone sweetly against a chiming backdrop of acoustic and e-bow-like guitars. The delivery of Adams and Helmers is relaxed and plainspoken in a way that fits the character of the project; adding to the vocal dimension, the two alternate between singing in counterpoint and in unison, with Johnston also occasionally joining in to broaden vocal colour. In the absence of a drummer, it falls to the guitarist and bassist to carry the songs rhythmically, which they do handily.
“Biography” captures the delicate balance the group strikes between simplicity and intricacy. Replace the singers with Derek Shulman and the song could even pass for an acoustic one by Gentle Giant. “The Bhikku” distances itself from the other songs in pairing a bowed bass solo with mellotron-like textures, glissando guitars, and chanted vocals. In contrast to the elaborateness of that arrangement, “A Dog Barking at Night” features nothing more than a single voice plus Clutton. “Sparrow Come in My Door” is ear-catching for the way banjo helps guide the singers through their polyphonic paces. As memorable is “Friends” for the hook of its “On nights like this, I wish I had a friend or better yet two” refrain. Songs like these get under your skin and invite singalongs the more you hear them. Still, as satisfying as the release is, one thing would have made it better: a lyrics sheet that would have allowed Nowlan's words to be read in addition to being heard. Given how critical his words are to the project, their absence in a written form is noticeable.June 2023