He’s here for a good time and a long time.
Call it roots, rock or folk, the music of Joel Plaskett has been revving up crowds (with his electric band, The Emergency) or warming rooms (his softer, acoustic side) for a number of years as the earnest, hard-working music man continues to cut out a place for himself on the Canadian music scene that has him venturing beyond his Dartmouth, N.S. home almost constantly.
Plaskett will be making the trip to Cochrane Sept. 29, opening up the 12th season for the Cochrane Valley Folk Club (CVFC) for a 7:30 p.m. show at the Cochrane Alliance Church.
Currently, Plaskett is touring his newest album, Scrappy Happiness, an electric collection of his newest tracks with his band, The Emergency, albeit performed for the CVFC in a more stripped-down, acoustic fashion. He will be accompanied by fellow musician and dear friend, Pete Elkas and opener Mo Kenney, a young woman who Plaskett recently produced a debut album for — a partnership between his label, New Scotland Records, and Toronto label, Pheromone Recordings.
“I like working on good music . . . I first saw her (Mo) when she was 16 and she was remarkable,” mused Plaskett, who came across Kenney, now 22, several years later and immediately decided to take a venture on her music.
“For me, producing a record is a way of working close to home, and also, working on other peoples’ music allows me to bring that back to my own music.”
The tour is a double dig for Plaskett — a platform to showcase Kenney’s debut, self-titled album as well as show his fan bases across the nation his own latest collection.
“This record is a little more challenging to tour in the acoustic way . . . although, some songs lend themselves to that,” said Plaskett.
Unique to Scrappy Happiness was Plaskett’s method of approach — releasing a song each week for 10 weeks last winter, and finally packaging it altogether on CD and vinyl.
Admittedly a hectic process, Plaskett said on the whole, he enjoyed the crazy week-to-week deadline (as in a new track, recorded, mixed, mastered and released every seven days) and the honesty that was reflected in the music itself out of this process.
“There’s something to be said about mistakes on a record — it merits further investigation,” he said. “My deadline was every Thursday and get it released to iTunes and CBC Radio 2 the following Tuesday . . . it was an unusual way to release a record.”
The sense of urgency fueled a strong energy that Plaskett feels resonates off the overall product that is Scrappy Happiness — which Plaskett hopes will follow his preceding triple album, Three, in strong suit, for which Plaskett and fellow Emergency shakers, Dave Marsh (drums) and Chris Pennell (bass) received a Juno Award, as well as a Polaris Prize nomination for.
For this particular set of western shows, however, Plaskett is looking forward to reuniting with Elkas and taking a load off.
“It’s been pretty much all Emergency all year
. . . that’s partly why I’m looking forward to this tour with Pete, because it’s a little different than what I’ve been doing all year,” he said, admitting that he loves the duality of the Neil Young approach to his career.
This winter will keep Plaskett busy, as he puts the final touches on his new Dartmouth studio.
For tickets to all CVFC shows, visit cochranefolkclub.com or stop by Cochrane Coffee Traders or Phantoms Music.
Tickets are $25.
