Understated, delicate, and quietly enrapturing, the music of Doug Paisley is a powerfully minimalistic take on rustic Americana.
Firmly rooted in the musical community of Toronto, Paisley has received his fair share of accolades south of the border. Rolling Stone called his 2010 album Constant Companion a “nearly perfect singer-songwriter record” and the New Yorker called it a “quiet wonder.”
His 2014 release Strong Feelings has also graced a number of “best of” lists in both Canada and the United States, leading MOJO to extoll that with Paisley’s impressive and prolific body of work, “an anti-star is born.”
Paisley’s albums feature a who’s who of the North American music world, including collaborations with Leslie Feist, Mary Margaret O’Hara and The Band’s Garth Hudson. Last week, he even released a beautifully fragile duet with Bonnie “Prince” Billy.
While largely considered one of Canada’s brightest up and coming talents, Paisley started his musical career as a student at Trent University in all too familiar haunts like the Red Dog Tavern and Sadleir House’s Dining Hall.
Doug Paisley will be performing in Peterborough at the Gordon Best Theatre on Thursday October 30. He will be joined by special guest, two-time Juno award winner Jenny Whiteley and Peterborough’s own (and the writer of this article) Nick Ferrio.
Over the past year, Paisley and I have become friends, travelling and performing in Dawson City and even taking a ride in dog sled together. I chatted with Doug Paisley about Peterborough, his time at Trent, songwriting and working with his heroes.
You’ve told me before that Trent and specifically Peterborough had a profound effect on your music. How did you start out and how did Peterborough affect what you did?
I would say I first started performing music in Peterborough. When I was studying at Trent, I was introduced to a lot of bluegrass records from Tim Haines at Blue Streak Records.
I also spent a considerable amount of time in a place called Ed’s Music, a great guitar shop that was run by Don Skuce. I put up a sign in Ed’s Music that I wanted to start playing with other bluegrass musicians and this guy called Mark Terry, a banjo player in town, contacted me and we started playing.
Over time we started playing with other musicians in town. We played a lot of shows at The Red Dog and at Sadleir House. I really got into music in Peterborough when I should have really got into academics.
You’ve worked with Feist, Garth Hudson, and just this week released a duet with Bonnie “Prince” Billy. Can you tell me how that relationship came to be, and how working with people you respect has affected your music and your work as a songwriter?
For my first tour, I was in a duo with visual artist Shary Boyle called Dark Hand and Lamp Light, that we actually put together to tour the US with Bonnie “Prince” Billy. So, that’s how I met him and got to know him, and our friendship just continued from there. That’s led to us working together.
I think musicians inherently are curious and want to try things. So, all of the people I’ve worked with, I just approached them and asked them if they’d be interested in working together. It has made the projects a lot of fun as opposed to being on my own.
It’s a long road and a long career being a musician. So, working with people whose work you respect, it brings a lot of energy into the recording process and just helps to charge things up and lets you get outside of yourself a little bit.
As for songwriting: for me, writing a song is trying to play a song almost as if it’s already written. That’s the majority of the work I do: spending hours and hours playing, leading these songs on.
Thursday October 30:
Doug Paisley
Jenny Whiteley
& Nick Ferrio
at Gordon Best Theatre
8pm – $15 advanced tickets
Available at the Only Café (216 Hunter St.)
Or online at: ticketscene.ca
