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It’s been a long time coming since Ol’ Savannah have hit the stage. The time is nigh! Ol’ Savannah will be playing from a tree-house stage in Saint-Fortunat on Friday, September 19 at l’AgorA (http://www.ag0ra.org/ag0ra/Acceuil.html) for the 5th edition of EarthDance Festival.
Check out the following invite: https://www.facebook.com/events/538689589576785/
THURSDAY, MAY 15 at Divan Orange (4234 Boulevard Saint-Laurent, Montréal, QC H2W 1Z3 (514) 840-9090) — with The Steady Swagger and Young Running, 10PM, $10 at the door
FRIDAY, MAY 16 at Le Sous Bois (405, rue Racine E, Chicoutimi, QC 418-549-7830) — w/Les Western Stars, 10PM, $8 pre-sale, $10 at the door
SATURDAY, MAY 17 at Coureur des Bois (1551, boul. Wallberg Dolbeau-Mistassini (Québec) G8L 1H5 418 979-1197) — 10PM, $10 at the door
FRIDAY, MAY 23 at Le Baril Roulant (2434 Rue de l’Église, Val-David, QC J0T 2N0 (819) 320-0069) — 9:30PM, $10 at the door
SATURDAY, MAY 24 at L’Albion (408 Boulevard Manseau, Joliette, QC J6E 3E1 (450) 759-7482 www.brasseriealbion.com/) — 9:30PM, $10 at the door
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ol’ Savannah
Speedy Johnson and Bartleby J. Budde are the founders and songwriters of Ol’ Savannah, a Montreal(Canada)-based folk band. The two began writing songs together in 2009, highly influenced by folk, roots, and blues artists, such as Mississippi Fred McDowell and John Hurt. Ol’ Savannah have released three albums: “Ol’ Savannah” (independent, 2010), “Underneath the Old Red Barn” (independent, 2011), and “Death on the Mountain” (Coup d’Griffe, 2012).[1][2]
Ol’ Savannah’s style has been compared to a mix of Tom Waits, Roscoe Holcomb, Muddy Waters, and The Pogues.[3]
Ol’ Savannah have made multiple appearances on Halifax’s (Nova Scotia) waterfront as part of the Halifax International Buskers Festival.[4]
In 2013, Cult MTL’s reader poll voted Ol’ Savannah in the top of the “Best Country/Folk Act” in Montreal.[5]
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Vote for Ol’ Savannah here: http://music.cbc.ca/#/play/artist/Ol-Savannah/Bury-Me-on-the-Mountain
Ol’ Savannah are part of CBC’s Searchlight for Canada’s best new artist. Please vote once a day every day until April 6. Help Ol’ Savannah make it through to the regional semi-finals!
A word from CBC:
The contest is divided into several rounds, and this round will choose the regional semi-finalists. So don’t just vote for your favourite band. Vote for all the bands you think deserve attention and radio play, in your region and across Canada.
You can always find the polls here on the Searchlight homepage in the “Vote now!” tab, the regional pages listed below, as well as links to vote for specific artists on their CBC Music artist profiles. You can find playlists of the local acts on the regional pages.
If you have questions, email us at searchlight@nullcbc.ca
Three shows back-to-back-to back starting Thursday in Toronto where the dance of burlesque meets the music of folk for a soirée Folklesque at Lee’s Palace. Ol’ Savannah will be closing the night with a full set of musique originale!
Friday night at Le Troquet. In the heart of old Hull (Gatineau), this will be the place to be! 2 full sets of musique originale!
Saturday in Montreal. It’s going to be a Cabaret, old chum! Our label Coup d’Griffe is hosting a benefit at Katacombes to help us and fellow CDG bands get on the road and play more shows. Hours of musique originale! (and some unlikely covers too… don’t ya miss it ;0)
Please visit these facebook event pages for more info:
TO: https://www.facebook.com/events/607736899301144/
HULL: https://www.facebook.com/events/213050228889151/
MTL: https://www.facebook.com/events/571449682945169/
Came across this in Pete’s book Where Have all the Flowers Gone. He wrote these new words once smog prevented his view of the Catskills. He writes that he could see the mountains clearly in the early 50’s while standing in his wife Toshi’s vegetable garden 45 miles away. Once the smog filled up the valley, one only sees the distant mountains when the northwest wind blows. Here you have his new words. Please let us know what you think, whether you’re Canadian, American, or otherwise.
O Canada
At last I breathe again
All thanks to you
Also your great north wind.
No customs tax, no border guards
Could keep your clean air out
So down here in the Polluted States
We all stand up and shout.
O Canada! O Canada!
O Canada —
The words stop in my mouth,
What happens to you when the wind blows
From the south?
By: Colton Alexander Gagnon, Montreal, QC, December 14, 2013
This past year has kept the boys of Ol’ Savannah on the road and in the studio. The band’s third album in as many years, “Death on the Mountain” seeks to haunt and trance audiences away from the run-of-the-mill, happy-go-lucky, over-saccharrine melodies and harmonies of traditional folk music. Speedy Johnson’s vocals mixed with the instrumentation (banjo, accordion, guitar, bass, and percussion) reveal a “threatening, sinister air…yet the beauty of the songs is never overwhelmed.”
Stream the entire album at www.olsavannah.bandcamp.com
All the songs were written by Speedy Johnson and Bartleby J. Budde, with the exception of their rendition of the Balfa Brothers’ Valse de Balfa. Here are “two men on the same wave length with a vision of their music that is constantly evolving, drawing in new ideas that keep everything so fresh and original.”
I met up with “the boys”, who also include Kevin Labchuk, Tim van de Ven, and Ram Krishnan, in a downtown-Montreal watering hole. A place where one orders an Irish Car Bomb only to receive a dirty look and a finger that points to Crescent Street. Appropriately, the bar is called Grumpy’s. We raised a shot glass full of whiskey, toasted to another “shit-year”, and I began the interview.
How were all of your childhoods?
Van de Ven was the first to say, “I grew up in Ontario”. Budde interrupted and said, “shut up. Nobody cares.” Labchuk squeezed in a comment about the Canadian Navy and its sixteen ships.
If you were women, how different do you think your music would be?
[I got nothing but silence save Krishnan’s grumble, then Johnson called for another round.]
Do you worry about whether people like you for the real you?
“I think it’s like a box of cereal. Sometimes you read the back of the box and forget all about filling the bowl,” said Johnson.
Budde added, ” That’s entirely correct.”
When do you go back in the studio?
“We got some material for the next album. Hold on to your britches and find out.” [I’ll refrain from naming who said this. This was kind of a ‘dickish’ thing to say, and I’m better than that.]
Why don’t you guys play top 40 hits instead and try to make some real dough?
[I tried my best to piece together all the fragments that came hurling into the small microphone of my hand-held recorder]
“Have you no decency!?” “Like Mumfords and Son!?” “‘Nother round, [EXPLETIVE DELETED]” “I did that once in grade 12…best 4 years of my life!” “I am cheese and this cheese gots taste!” “I’m Spartacus!”
REVIEW FROM MONTREAL MUSIC SCENE (link to review)
A padded envelope shows up a while back to the brand new MMS office; it could only be one thing — a new album! Hurriedly, I ripped it open only to find a rather different album cover.
The cover (designed by Mike Rigby) features a horse-headed clergyman overseeing fellow forest animals, dressed from head to toe in black funeral garb, carrying a wooden coffin to a mountainside grave beneath an ominous sky. The album? Ol’ Savannah’s “Death On The Mountain”.
The album contains just the right blend of folk and Americana influences with the recognizable banjo, harmonica, and accordion complimenting the usual guitar, bass, and drums. The vocals are also just as important, as they tell a mature, gritty story and give credibility to the rest of Ol’ Savannah’s sound. In fact, the album begins with a track titled “Bury Me On The Mountain” which essentially sets the groundwork for what’s to come. The lyrics channel a dark, twisted story: “I wandered through the mountains till I find my way; joined you in the sleep of our eternal grave”. The band appropriately bookends said lyrics with vocal cries of pain and chains, giving the track some life despite it’s grim subject.
The album however does provide some more kick with tracks such as “Swamp Stomp” and “Down By The River” which could almost serve as the soundtrack to a drunken night amongst old acquaintances. They are in fact rather memorable tracks which will no doubt have you stomping and singing along.
Although the album is deeply influenced by Americana, it is definitely not your typical commercialized “folk”-influenced bands! Ol’ Savannah still succeeds in standing out and they’re able to do so by staying true to the genres they use. Quite simply put, they succeed in channeling the past with a gritty yet polished sound that’s bound to keep you listening again and again.
“Death On The Mountain” is Ol’ Savannah’s 3rd album and features Speedy Johnson (guitar, vocals, harmonica), Bartleby J. Budde (banjo, vox), Kevin Labchuk (accordion, backup vox), Tim van de Ven (percussion), and Ram Krishnan (bass).
We’d like to welcome in the fall with open gullets! “Death on the Mountain” is out now and you can listen to it in its entirety at www.olsavannah.bandcamp.com.
Have a look at our September shows, coming soon to a venue near you (hopefully!) …
Friday, September 13 @ Bistro Le SAAZ (Joliette, QC)
Saturday, September 14 @ Brasserie Artisanale Le Baril Roulant / Coop de travail La CoOppidum (Val-David, QC)
Friday, September 20 @ Loup rouge, artisan brasseur, coopérative de travailleurs (Sorel-Tracy, QC)
Friday, September 27 @ The Toucan (Kingston, ON)
Saturday, September 28 — O-Town Hoedown — @ Fatboy’s (Ottawa, ON)