>>PREVIEW
CREAKING TREE STRING QUARTET
Thursday, June 29
Ironwood
Creaking Tree String Quartet is at the front end of a 20,000 kilometre cross-country marathon, averaging 400 km/day. Head fiddle demon John Showman phones me from somewhere near the Icefields Parkway west of Red Deer, where he’s lost his jacket, ID, cards and money and has been left behind to sort himself out and make his way to Regina for his band’s first gig on Wednesday. Yes, the tour mayhem has begun, and the tour isn’t even underway yet. But, Showman is unflappable.
"The other half of the band left Toronto this morning," he drawls, "and they’ve gotta be in Regina by Wednesday. This tour has at least eight days of non-negotiable 16-hour driving.
"On the bright side, though, we’ll be driving like bats out of hell, but then we get to stay sometimes up to a week in one place. It’s all good."
The members of Creaking Tree String Quartet have been playing their particular brand of experimental bluegrass roots music for four years. This is their third tour in almost as many years and the band’s popularity continues to escalate. Trained in rock, jazz and classical music, the Trees combine musical knowledge with unquestionably wild-eyed passion.
"All the members of this group are irreplaceable in any number of ways," Showman states baldly. "The sheer musical chemistry is so amazing, I just can’t imagine anybody else playing in the band. Plus, the music we’re playing is pretty technically (genre-specific) specific and challenging – I can’t imagine who would be able to step into this band easily."
Influenced by David Grisman, Tony Rice and Bela Fleck, the Creaking Trees take these inspirations merely as a starting point. "That’s where it kind of begins," says Showman. "What we play is a little less new-agey, a bit more formally composed. It’s a tricky mix – the music is carefully crafted, but it’s important that it sound effortless to an audience, while at the same time not being too oblique.
"I think the reason we’ve been so successful this far, is that everyone in the band gives 100 per cent – all the writing and arranging are split evenly between the band members, we’re completely self-managed and self-promoted."
After this tour, the Trees are heading into the studio with an external producer for the first time, and they’ve managed to score no less a heavyweight than eight-time Grammy Award-winner Bil VornDick, who’s produced everyone from Bob Dylan and Bela Fleck to Jerry Douglas and T.Bone Burnett and who discovered Alison Krauss.
"It’s a real opportunity for us. Bil’s already defined his career and he’s not looking to prove anything. He just works on projects that he enjoys now. It’s a great chance to develop ourselves musically."
But in the meantime, the Trees will be all over the Prairies, driving hard and playing hard. |
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