Team GDW recently took an extended vacation across parts of ON and QC, and with an open Saturday on the first leg of our travels, the lure of the annual Peterborough Folk Festival was strong – tempting us with a pair of Maritimes-based bands that we’ve been itching to catch live. When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade – and when life gives you the amazing tandem of Pretty Archie and Quote the Raven in an early afternoon workshop, you get yourself over to Nicholls Oval Park, no excuses accepted.
Cape Breton, NS jam-band Pretty Archie first came to our attention back in 2019, when we featured their fabulous “Hanging On” album, and again most recently, thanks to some resurgent SiriusXM radio airtime spinning their “Familiar Feeling” single. Comprised of Brian Cathcart (vocals/guitar), Colin Gillis (bass/harmonica/vocals), Matt McNeil (mandolin), Redmond MacDougall (banjo/vocals), and Scott MacLean (mandolin/guitar) – Scott was unavailable on this given day – catching some tunes from four of the five guys was worth the drive alone.
Having performed as a duo for the better part of a decade, it was only within the last couple of years that Newfoundland’s “Quote the Raven” landed on our listening radar. Name dropped to us by a mutual friend with a strong passion for the Maritime’s music scene, this duo of Jordan Coaker (guitar/vocals) and Kirsten Rodden-Clarke (vocals) simmered on the backburner for a while, until hearing “Godspeed (Requiem for Gene MacLellan)” – their stunning contribution to the “Sonny Don’t Go Away: A Tribute to Ron Hynes” album last year (a GDW Top 4 Album Finalist). Quote the Raven – on the backburner, nevermore.
With a thirty minute in-the-round set on the Generation Solar Stage at their disposal, both acts kept the conversations short, and the music to the max – both jesting with the frequency made to the words “Cape Breton” in-between tunes. Pretty Archie would commence the show, with Brian taking a moment to share their choice for the first offering. “We’re gonna start things off with a song called Poor Boy, and we wrote this about ten years ago about not having any money, and unfortunately it rings true today.”
Taking the baton, Kirsten would also take a moment to address the crowd. “We are from Newfoundland, otherwise known as the other Cape Breton,” she shared. “Actually, we’re really happy to be sharing the stage with these boys because we only see them at festivals and conferences, it seems like.” With mutual nods from all artists on stage, Jordan would continue, explaining that their first tune would be an unreleased song written about his niece. “Her name is Lena. It’s called Oh Lena.”
Prior to performing “Stay The Same,” the single that firmly planted Pretty Archie on our listening radar back in 2019, bassist Colin Gillis would reflect a little more on Kirsten’s earlier statement. “You may only see good friends at conferences and festivals, but you realize when you have good friends, not much changes, you know,” he shared. “You kind of pick up where you left off.” Brian would continue this thread, adding a flash of his own east coast humor when implying that time is mostly irrelevant: “a good friend is, no matter how long the time between you talk, it always feels like they’re just coming back from the bathroom.”
Moving into the popular Quote the Raven single, “Golden Hour,” Jordan would take a moment to discuss the recording experience. “Back in 2018, we decided to write and record an entire record in two weeks,” he stated. “And that was really… dumb!” Pausing as the crowd burst into laughter, he would continue. “Most people take years or even lifetimes for paydirt, and we’re like, nah, they’re chumps, we can do it in two weeks. But we managed to do that, we wrote fourteen songs in four days with some east coast songwriters – some were even from Cape Breton – but we found out very early on in the recording process that you actually can’t make a record if there is no power. The wind and the rain [were] so bad, it literally knocked the roof off our producer’s house in Nova Scotia, and we had to gather around candlelight the first night.” Audience harmonies were encouraged for the chorus, while the guys from Pretty Archie stepped in too with some additional instrumentation on harmonica, mandolin, and banjo – and if only more time were available, this collaboration could have blossomed beautifully into an all-out east coast kitchen party.
With time running out, Pretty Archie would take care of the bonus song, opting to share another gem from their 2019 album, the opening track “Ain’t No Saving Me.” “When you’re playing in a band and traveling around with your fourth, ninth and eighth best friends, you’re having a little fun,” Brian offered. “But you’re not always eating all your vegetables or drinking enough water. When you go back to the hotel, you don’t always take the bible out of your bedside table and do your prayers. So, I wrote this song looking for a little forgiveness.”
Set List:
- Poor Boy (Pretty Archie)
- Oh Lena *New* (Quote the Raven)
- Stay The Same (Pretty Archie)
- The Moth (Quote the Raven)
- *Unreleased Track* (Pretty Archie)
- Golden Hour (Quote the Raven)
- Ain’t No Saving Me (Pretty Archie)
The British guy that crossed the ocean and crash landed in central Pennsylvania (to quote Greg Keelor, “And I wonder what am I doing here?”). As the youngest of four siblings, exposure to music from a very early age nurtured my passion and appreciation for many musical genres. Continuing to discover some amazingly diverse and talented musicians based in Canada, I gravitate to live music experiences and remain devoted to spreading the word about such a vibrant music scene.
