OLD MAN LUEDECKE
Touring Australia in March-April 2009
First time visit to Australia by one of Canada’s
best loved and most intriguing roots musicians.
Sound Samples
1. Proof
of Love
2. I Quit
My Job
3. Just
Like a River
From the music rich maritime province of Nova Scotia on the
East coast a banjo songster like Old Man (Chris) Luedecke
is a rare type of musician. A songwriting one of such hopeful
goodness, rarer still. In the tradition of solo banjo men
and women of days gone by like Dock Boggs, Old Man Luedecke
sings his songs accompanied only by his loving five string,
foot stomps and the occasional yodel. His songs are melodic
gems blending old time sensibilities with an unusual vision
and poetic sense. His music belies someone more than slightly
ill at ease with modern life. This is a bizarre type of music
Dock Boggs might have made if he'd studied poetry.
Old Man Luedecke lives in Halifax and works all over the
huge country of Canada, from the Yukon to Vancouver. His latest
recording ‘Proof of Love’ is his third full-length
album and which when released in May 2008 in Canada extended
an already growing mob of admirers and fans.
More upbeat and optimistic than his previous wonderful if
somewhat dark second album ‘Hinterland’ which was
an almost solo offering, Proof of Love is more an ensemble
piece, not a band album but more like a gathering of mates
albeit a very talented and like minded mob. Hinterland was
a breakthrough album for Chris, his jaunty frailing style
banjo playing lending uplifting buoyancy to sometimes quite
melancholy and highly unique lyrical ideas, and it slotted
beautifully into a young market hungry for new growth from
old roots.
Old Man Luedecke performs with a gentle and endearing charisma,
stories littered with a canny oblique humour, he’s a
sly entertainer with almost a hint of contemporary vaudeville
about him and he plays a mean clawhammer banjo clearly derivative
of the old time and Appalachia rather than the more cluttered
and noisy modern country Nashville styles. He will draw on
material from both albums when touring Australia in 2009 for
the long summer festival season, from Port Fairy all the way
through to Fairbridge festival in mid April.
Old Man Luedecke has been busy since the release of his last
album. He has been a hit at many major North American folk
festivals and has supported acts such as Feist, The Be Good
Tanyas, Corb Lund, and Joel Plaskett at both club shows and
soft seater venues. He has appeared on festival stages with
the likes of Kris Kristofferson, David Francey, The Carolina
Chocolate Drops, Jill Barber and Buck 65. It was in fact,
Luedecke's driving banjo riff on Buck's 65's "Indestructible
Sam" that won the CBC Radio 3 Bucky Award for "Best
Hook" for his fellow east coast songwriter. Old Man Luedecke
will continue to tour relentlessly and watch for him as he
brings his "Proof of Love"
www.oldmanluedecke.ca
Listen to Old Man Luedecke on http://www.myspace.com/oldmanluedecke
BOOKINGS AND ADDITIONAL INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:
John McAuslan
Across The Borders Touring Agency
Phone: (03) 9387 3376 Fax: (03) 9380 8234
Email: johnbmf@vicnet.net.au
www.acrosstheborders.com.au
| www.brunswickmusicfestival.com.au
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Hinterland- Black Hen Music- 2006
Old Man Luedecke's music invokes the spirit of the folk
revival of the late fifties and early sixties with a modern
edge featuring traditional style banjo music complimented
by stellar contemporary songwriting.
"Hinterland" is a major work for Old Man Luedecke
as a concise and brilliantly articulated document of the
music that makes him and that he makes. Destined to be
an odd and eclectic Canadian classic, the songs of "Hinterland"
distill the pursuit of "following your dream"
wrapped in the folds of exciting genre-busting folk. Sure
to appeal to fans of all good music "Hinterland"
picks up where his successful 2003 debut "Mole in
the Ground" left off with a more fully developed
personal vision, musical depth and awareness of folk idioms
bent to modern purpose….CD Baby
Record - May 2008
Don't be fooled by the apparent simplicity of Chris (Old
Man) Luedecke; his music is direct, immediate and unpretentious,
but it's not simple. Luedecke plays claw-style banjo,
the style of the mountains, and acoustic guitar. And his
voice is warm and unadorned. Yet listen closely to his
lyrics and you catch a hip, contemporary sensibility lurking
behind the old-timey musical facade……..The late
John Hartford is surely smiling from his heavenly perch……The
Record
hGlobe and Mail - May 2008
Part Dock Boggs, part Walt Whitman and part aphorism-peddler
is Old Man Luedecke, a hillside Nova Scotia songster
who gently plays a banjo, turns phrases awfully well,
falls down and picks himself up again. Because he has
a gift for finding good-natured melodies and the flipsides
to "thoughts so dire," he'll be fine when
things Ain't Goin My Way, a hoedown tune from his third
album, Proof of Love. And he'll be okay - we'll be okay
- as long as a singalong Big Group Breakfast can be
a version of Nirvana, and, as he assures on the plucky,
resolute Just Like a River, our fears and darkness can
be left behind when we "sing these songs."
Old Man Luedecke, sing on - we'll follow…….The
Globe & Mail
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