What We Leave Behind

Produced in Nashville by fellow Canadian songwriter and producer Gordie Sampson, the follow-up to the splendid debut album Secret Victory finds the Prince Edward Island power-folk trio edging slightly closer to the mainstream, with somewhat mixed results. Musically at least, ‘Two Weeks’, co-written with Sampson, is an uncharacteristically anodyne pop-country affair, despite its lyrical theme of economically challenged communities, whereas ‘82 Fires’ is far more successful and stirring – a scorching climate-change anthem inspired by the alarming observation that there were no less than 82 wildfires raging in Tasmania while the trio were on tour there. Where the band – cousins Tim (on fiddle and vocals) and Koady (on banjo and guitar) Chaisson, plus their pal, guitarist Jake Charron – really take flight is still mostly with the instrumental tunes such as the opening track ‘Tanglewood’, which gleefully yank their background in traditional Canadian Celtic music into the present day, often fired by their recent travels around the world, as in the spry ‘Party Wave,’ inspired by a thrilling surfing experience the band enjoyed while in New Zealand.