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Shoulder Season returns to valley with live recording

Now that the busy summer season has come to an end in the valley, The Shoulder Season is moving forward with a CD release party for its first album set for Tuesday (Oct. 18).
The Shoulder Season, seen here performing at Communitea Caf
The Shoulder Season, seen here performing at Communitea Caf

Now that the busy summer season has come to an end in the valley, The Shoulder Season is moving forward with a CD release party for its first album set for Tuesday (Oct. 18).

A rising star of the local music scene, The Shoulder Season is a very popular five-member pop band composed of people who work hard through the summer season and then have more time to spare when things slow down.

In spring, the band played a show at Communitea in Canmore, recorded it, and now has made it available through their website, with the first 200 copies being offered for free.

Leading The Shoulder Season is acoustic guitarist Josh Smith, and he is joined by Mike Dodd playing trumpet, Margaret Tannett on banjo, Matt Mueller on drums and upright bassist Darcy Gillis.

Smith spoke on behalf of the band.

“We’re giving away 200 copies free, and we’ve had about 70 downloaded, and it’s only been about a week,” he said. “After that it’ll be on a pay-what-you-can basis, so you could put a donation of maybe a dollar, and we’re aiming for about $10 an album.

“If people feel like supporting the band, they can do that too.”

The show at which the album was recorded was also a free concert, he said, which saw a huge number of people turn out.

“We filled it to capacity, which is about 80, and then we turned away just about as many people – and then we opened the doors, so there were another 20 standing outside listening,” he explained. “It was surprising, we thought it would just be a lot of friends and friends of friends, but there were a lot of folks there.

“Probably two-thirds were new faces that came early to see the show,” he added. “And it was super fun for us.”

The band is having its official CD release party at Zona’s on Tuesday.

“The physical CDs are done, but we’re waiting for the covers,” he said. “Zak McGurk, a local graphic design student, is doing the whole cover for us, and he’s been awesome.”

Entitled Brass Leaves, the album includes seven tracks.

“That night we asked people in the audience to submit suggestions of names for the album, and we got a ton, and we named it Brass Leaves,” said Smith. “We put seven of 11 tracks on it, the seven best, to ensure the best continuity of the album.”

The other four tracks will also be released, separately, he explained, and the entire project wouldn’t have been possible without the support of the community.

“The whole thing wouldn’t be possible without the community of people that have helped out – Marnie and Alex at Communitea for the original recording, Seth Anderson helped out that night too, Terry Holluck at the studio,” said Smith.

While the summer was busy with other things, the band did find time to play two shows, a local talent showcase at The Banff Centre and a performance at the Canmore Folk Music festival.

“We got really good responses from both of those shows; folks really enjoy what we’re doing,” he said. “We had a phenomenal time playing The Banff Centre – it was great working with them, because they’re all so pro.”

Next, the band hopes to play more shows and possibly get into the studio to record a full album.

“With our schedules so full, we can’t tour a lot like a traditional band, but we hope to play some more shows when we can,” he said. “I think we can make good quality music and put it out there to the people that are enjoying it.

“It’d be great to pop into the studio in the spring and put out a studio quality album. We were all excited when we got the recording process done – the live show is what people wanted to capture, which is why we did a live album – but now all of our brains are working towards producing it, to try and make something that flushes out the songs a bit more.”

To hear and download the band’s live album, visit their website at theshoulderseason.bandcamp.com/album/brass-leaves-live-at-communitea or copies will be available for purchase at the Oct. 18 show.


Rocky Mountain Outlook

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