Summer schedule includes two Fredericton-area performances.
The latest video from Old Man Luedecke for “Early Days” was filmed during a recording session for his upcoming album, Domestic Eccentric, set for release on July 24. “It was shot in the cabin I built in the woods behind my house where we made the record,” Luedecke tells Bluegrass Situation. “It starts with footage from inside the backhoe we had to hire to plow a road through the three and a half feet of snow to the cabin to get the gear in. You can hear Tim O’Brien and I discussing playing the individual strings of a chord to kick off the song just like the songs on Ralph Stanley’s Clinch Mountain Gospel album. It looks like we’re having fun making the record, I think. The end shots are from my 39 birthday party that same night.”
Old Man Luedecke is hoping for clear roads and tail winds as he gets set for a string of tour dates this summer in support of the album. Tour dates begin June 25 with stops in Moncton, Vancouver, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Regina, Fredericton and more. All tour dates are listed below.
As the title suggests, Domestic Eccentric is mostly a record about home. It’s about what it means to be a still-youngish man, what it’s like to still be in love with the woman you started writing songs about and moved to the country with more than a decade ago, about what it’s like to watch your own babies grow to children, and about the joys and sorrows attendant upon the milestones of parenthood.
A record so replete with home seemed impossible to make anywhere else. So Old Man Luedecke fitted out his back woods cabin, a hand-hewn affair he’d built himself from rough-sawn lumber, and hired a backhoe to make a 500 yard road through the record amounts of snow so he could bring in top-level recording gear. He invited Tim O’Brien to stay at his home with his family for a week of snowbound collaboration in Chester, Nova Scotia. Leudecke and O’Brien had worked together before, and their increasing comfort in each other’s musical presence has yielded spectacular results. “Tim is my favorite musician,” Luedecke says. “And working with him in a duet environment in a cabin at home was a waking dream.”
“You can’t fake a work of heart,” Luedecke sings in “The Girl in the Pearl Earring,” the second song on Domestic Eccentric, and the assured confidence of that line, the assertion of a straightforward truth, is the guiding principle behind the entire album. Old Man Luedecke is the real thing, a modern-day people’s poet and traveling bard and balladeer. He’s played around the world to a loving and increasing fan base, and won two Juno awards in the process. Tim O’Brien is a multiple Grammy Award winning roots multi-instrumentalist whose solo work and collaborations have made him one of the most respected American players working today. The two last worked together on Luedecke’s 2012 release, Tender Is The Night, which was nominated for a JUNO Award, listed for The Polaris Music Prize and won Album of the Year at the East Coast Music Awards.
“I worked with people I loved and trusted,” says Luedecke when telling the story of Domestic Eccentric. “And the record, for me, is a rich portrait of personal friendships.” Along with Tim O’Brien, master engineer John D. Southern Adams of Stonehouse Sound (who worked so tirelessly he became a producer of the project) and vocalist Jennah Barry (who left her own dinner guests waiting while she sang on The Briar and the Rose) are both from nearby Mahone Bay. Drummer Nick Halley (James Taylor) lives even closer than that. In fact, the whole album is recorded live off the floor, with the exception of Samson Grisman (Sarah Jarosz, Lee Ann Womack), who was sad to have to record his bass parts in Nashville.
“It was a magical week,” Luedecke reminisces . “You bring a few great people together, these great talents, these amazing musical components. And then you watch all the pieces become this one amazing thing.”
Old Man Luedecke Tour Dates
June 25 Trailside Cafe, Mount Stewart PEI
June 26 Trailside Cafe, Mount Stewart PEI
June 27 Magnetic Hill Folk Festival, Moncton NB
June 28 Feels Good Folly Fest, Gagetown NB
July 18, 19 Vancouver Folk Festival, Vancouver BC
Aug 1-3 Canmore Folk Festival, Canmore AB
Aug 5 The Slice Bar and Grill, Lethbridge AB
Aug 6 Twin Butte Store Soulfest, Twin Butte AB
Aug 7-8 Edmonton Folk Festival, Edmonton AB
Aug 9 Kicking Horse Resort, Golden BC
Aug 11 Village Guitars, Saskatoon SK
Aug 12 Park Theatre, Winnipeg MB
Aug 13 Artful Dodger Regina, SK
Aug 14 Swift Current House Concerts, Swift Current SK
Aug 16-22 Nimble Fingers, Teaching songwriting, Sorrento BC
Aug 29 Windsong Music Festival, Powassan ON
Sept 2-4 Jackpine Jamboree, Birnamwood WI
Sept 5 Coffeehouse, Ripton VT
Sept 9 Green Church, Mexico ME
Sept 10North Church Concert Series, Farmington ME
Sept 11 Philips Area Community Centre, Phillips ME
Sept 12 One Longfellow Square, Portland ME
Sept 17, Harvest Jazz and Blues, Fredericton NB
Sept 25-27 Deep Roots Music Festival, Wolfville NS
Oct 8, 9 Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival, NC
Oct 10, 11 Celtic Colours International Festival
Oct 14 Harbourfront Centre Theatre, Toronto ON
