After releasing a concept album based on the Abrahamic creation story, Andrew Collins was planning to dial it back for his next record. He ended up recording a double album.
This spring the Toronto-based acoustic roots band the Andrew Collins Trio – Collins and fellow multi-instrumentalists Mike Mezzatesta and James McEleney – released Tongue and Groove, Tongue being an album featuring vocals, while Groove is entirely instrumental.
Collins said it was fun to “straddle two opposite sides of the same coin.”
“Originally the concept was to just do an album of vocal stuff, and then as the recording date was approaching I was like, ‘You know, we’re still known as an instrumental group, so while we’re already getting in the studio, why don’t I write a bunch of material to record an instrumental album at the same time?’” he said.
“So what was originally supposed to be like a lighter undertaking than the last one ended up being two albums at once. So I didn’t succeed in making it less work.”
The albums feature many unexpected covers, like Graham Nash’s King Midas in Reverse, Goodbye Blue Sky by Pink Floyd and Just a Gigolo, recorded by Louis Prima in the ‘50s but made popular by ex-Van Halen singer David Lee Roth. Collins said they are all songs that he’s been “secretly collecting” over the years but never knew what to do with them.
Those tunes are now in the open and since the albums came out the Andrew Collins Trio have been performing them across North America.
Despite a history of playing on the Island – the trio’s first ever tour took them to Qualicum Beach – Collins has yet to perform in Nanaimo. That changes on Thursday, Sept. 27 when the band plays the Unitarian Hall.
Collins was curious which of the two records, and therefore playing styles, would be more popular, and he was happy to find that fans have been generally buying the records together.
He said the albums complement each other.
“You can even see in the arc of the instrumentation and stylistic boundaries that are being pushed and followed, there’s a similar arc where it starts a little esoteric and then pop in the face with something bluegrass-y,” Collins said.
“It wasn’t intentional but it just worked out that the pacing of the albums really follow a similar arc and the influences are still coming from all the same places because it’s still the music being told by the same people.”
WHAT’S ON … Harbour City Concerts presents the Andrew Collins Trio at the Unitarian Hall, 595 Townsite Rd., on Thursday, Sept. 27 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets $20, available at Fascinating Rhythm, Arbutus Music and online.
arts@nanaimobulletin.com
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