Sunday, October 30, 2011

Sam Roberts Band "Collider"


Thanks, Eddie, for bringing this guy to my attention.  That's what it takes, dear readers, to find good tunes in these dark days of popular music (literally 2 out of 3 hits on today's charts are GARBAGE!).  We have to help one another muddle through the aural crap that dominates the airwaves, especially those of you in the older demographics with moi. 

I wondered why I had missed Sam Roberts, especially when Eddie said he was a multiple Juno Award winner (Canadian Grammy), so I investigated the timeline of his history.  Being in music retail in the tourist corridor of Orlando, I had to be patently aware of what was selling worldwide, and maybe, just maybe, I read Sam Roberts name in my Canadian research.  However, his independently released music never made it that far south.  I'm guessing Doxey knew him in Niagara.  Anyway, by the time he hit on a major label I was out of the business.  I believe I would have noticed him winning Album, Artist, and Rock Album of the Year awards in 2004 for that debut LP.  I was in and out of radio again before the next album, which went gold and Top 5 north of the border.  The next album arrived a year before I started this blog, so I missed it as well.  From what I gather, these recordings were much more rock oriented, making the comparisons I read to the Tragically Hip more appropriate.  I certainly heard nothing in the way of the Hip on "Collider."  Now if Blue Rodeo would make an all-pop album, it would certainly be along this style.  In no particular order, here are the other artists this reminded me of; Tom Petty, the Beatles, the Eagles, Huey Lewis & the News, Cracker, maybe a smidgen of Creedence, and one track would make believers out of Dave Matthews fans.  The following is the opening track...



That's the first song I ever heard by this guy and it hooked me!  I must admit that my curiosity about the earlier rock sound my get the best of me, and it's rare that I go backwards in an artist's catalog from my point of entry.  We will see...

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