Lennie Gallant's annual Rendezvous Rustico
concert has become something of an Island institution.
Just as the swallows return faithfully each
March to San Juan Capistrano, fans of the singer-songwriter return
faithfully to the big tent in Rustico each July to welcome Gallant
home for a night of music and homegrown stories.
One of the biggest drawing cards for that
show is that Gallant often uses that show to introduce fans here
to new music.
This past July he chose that concert to introduce
several songs from When We Get There, his first new English studio
album in more than four years.
The new songs introduced that night, a sampling
which included, among others, I Want To Save The World For You,
Eleven Roses, When We Get There and 47 Angels On Her Front Lawn,
generated high expectations for this record.
That record is now on the street and I have
no hesitation in saying the expectations generated that July night
have been more than fully met. In fact, they have been exceeded.
When We Get There is a superior piece of work
in which one good song follows another from beginning to end.
Song for song, it may well be the best record
the multiple ECMA winner has ever recorded.
That's no small achievement given the strength
of some of the albums in his catalogue.
Recorded and mixed at Dogger Pond Studio in
Drummondville P.Q. where Lennie and Davey Gallant served as both
co-arrangers and co-producers and at C note Studios in Halifax,
When We Get There features 14 Gallant originals, 12 of which are
new. The two exceptions are a new version of Pieces of You, recorded
with full band - the version included on the live album features
just voice and guitar - and The Gypsy Wind an English version
of the title track from his French album, Le Vent Bohème!
Of the 12 new offerings, several are story
songs. "I've come back to storytelling on this album in a
big way," Gallant said in a recent interview "I really
like songs that tell tales and take you on a journey." The
stories he tells here and the journeys he takes you on go straight
for the heart in most instances. Such is the case, for example,
with This Perfect Kiss, a song inspired by the tragic death of
singer-songwriter Tara MacLean's sister Shaye Reno in a highway
accident three years ago. He goes for the heart as well with material
like I'm Learning How (To Fall In Love With You Again), Eleven
Roses and the title track.
But love and loss aren't the only themes here.
For 18-month-old daughter Amelie he wrote
I Want To Save The World For You, a call to clean up the planet
so that her generation and those who follow can breathe clean
air, drink clean water and enjoy a world free from pollution of
all sorts.
The album also boasts a wonderful take on
the first Christmas from the perspective of an innkeeper in Bethlehem
whose life is forever changed by his encounter with Mary, Joseph
and the Christ child. When We Get There works at all levels.
The writing is very strong, the arrangements
are good, the performances are solid.
If Gallant doesn't earn multiple ECMA nominations
and a Juno nod for this record I'll be very much surprised.
