Though the posters claim they’re a trio, the AW Cardinal Band – consisting of Alexander Wesley Cardinal and Jasmine Ohlhauser – are touring the west as a duo.
“This tour was booked as a trio, but we lost our guitar player initially, so we’ve been trying to pick up musicians here and there,” said Cardinal over a beer at The Last Call. “In Red Deer and Calgary we got a drummer, we had a guitar player in Kelowna for a couple of days.
“It’s hard going to places and telling people when we can’t find another musician, that we have to do it as a duo.”
Playing 18 shows over a two-month period across Alberta and British Columbia, the band is nearing the end of its tour with a show in Canmore on Friday (Feb. 8) at the Good Earth Coffeehouse.
“I’m thinking of getting a bass kit for my foot and then rigging up a one-man-band kind of thing,” said Cardinal. “But what I’m finding interesting is the dynamics between the songs. When you pick up different people here and ther, it changes the songs a little bit, so there’s a different feel one night to the next and I like that.”
Originally from Rocky Mountain House, Cardinal has been nomadic of late, having lived in Montreal, Vancouver and various places in between.
His latest album – Stainless Steel Heart – is a mix of jazz, gypsy and old-time folk styles.
“It just came out that way – I’ve always really been interested in older music,” Cardinal explained. “I think living in Montreal and New York had a huge influence on me, because jazz is big out there.
“I’ve always been into the old, finger-style Mississippi blues, and it was a natural progression for me. It’s a huge mixture, there’s a lot of folk music too. Blues-influenced country, all that stuff comes out in my music.”
Recorded last summer in Vancouver and released in September, the album was a great experience, he said.
“I wrote them all as finger-picking style, and then translated them to comping chords, and then I went out to Vancouver and recorded it in the basement of a friend’s house,” he said. “We rented the equipment and spent a week recording, and that’s what came out.
“It was great because I had a bunch of friends play on the album and it was a fun experience. I want to put it out on vinyl, but we’re almost at the point of recording the next one.”
Ohlhauser, who grew up near Drumheller, also played on the album.
“I spent the better part of the last 10 years moving around a lot,” she said. “I was on tour with a couple of different bands, all over North America, from Nunavut to Halifax, New York and New Orleans and San Francisco and Mexico, so really all over.
“My angle is different genres of influence, a mixture of blues and jazz and folk. Now we’re just on the road, not based out of anywhere, but we’re moving to Montreal.”
Now touring with Cardinal, Ohlhauser explained it had been a great run of shows.
“It’s a good circuit, it’s a really good loop starting in Edmonton to Kelowna and back,” she said. “You can get two months’ worth of gigs in the same general area, which is hard to find elsewhere.
“It’s good in the winter, because in all the little mountain towns people are out doing winter activities, and then enjoying music.”
Cardinal echoed that it’s been a great experience.
“Wintertime in the mountains is beautiful too,” he said. “It’s pretty astonishing stuff to look at, and then we get to play every night.
“We have more contacts that we could book a bigger tour around here, but next we want to tour more east. The Maritimes are supposed to be really good too, but we know lots of people all over Alberta and B.C. and it’s good to do a tour here.”
While in Banff they played at The Beaver Bar at the Samesun Hostel and they’ve also enjoyed a number of house concerts throughout the tour.
“We just played a house concert in Calgary, and it was great, just the attentiveness. Sometimes it’s more nerve-wracking to play a house show – I’m used to playing places where people don’t listen – but it’s nice and cosy,” said Cardinal.
While they plan on heading east, the pair hope to return for another tour this summer. For more information on the AW Cardinal Band, visit their website at awcardinal.com
