Latent Recordings artist, Lee Harvey Osmond's latest release "Beautiful Scars", has been longlisted for Canada's prestigous Polaris Music Prize. The bands previous two albums A Quiet Evil and The Folk Sinner were also long-listed for the prize. All three albums were produced by Michael Timmins. Please stop by the LHO website and take a listen…we think you'll dig the groovy vibe…man.
We are excited to announce that Lee Harvey Osmond's "The Folk Sinner" has made the long list for this years Polaris Prize. For those of you who don't live in Toronto, Montreal or Vancouver, the Polaris Prize is awarded annually in Canada to the artist with coolest facial hair, or the most tatoos….or maybe its for the best album voted on by those with the most facial hair and coolest tatoos. In any case, the winner gets a nice chunk of change and its always good to be recognized for a job well done…it's also a great album. If you haven't had a listen, please do so by going to the Lee Harvey Osmond website where you can listen for free.
You can find more info about the Polaris Prize here
Lee Harvey Osmond will be bringing The Folk Sinner to Toronto on March 22 for a concert at The Great Hall. I will be playing along as a guest musician as will Andy Maize, (Skydiggers) Oh Susanna, Colin Linden (Blackie and the Rodeo Kings) and Paul Reddick. You can get your tickets here: http://www.ticketmaster.ca/event/10004A4CE9A58985.
If you haven't had a chance to listen yet, please do so: http://latentrecordings.com/leeharveyosmond/
Here is some earlier, incredible, praise for the album:
“It’s far too early to begin compiling a best of 2013 list, but The Folk Sinner is a good start. Canadiana cottage-country weirdness at its finest.”
The Record
“…this is the first must-have record of 2013. …the music Bob Dylan would have made if he could sing and play guitar like Mark Knopfler.” Berkeley Place
“prime uneasy listening” exclaim – 8/10
“ a beguiling record … jazz, country and American folk music, all filtered through Wilson’s impressive vision and impeccable taste.” Americana UK – 8/10
“Sinners seek salvation. …nocturnal incantations and lamentations.” Sun Media – Four Stars
“ …gathers infectiousness with each play and shines a light on the many facets of LeE HARVeY OsMOND. Consequence Of Sound
“The Folk Sinner is destined to be an underground classic.” Baby Sue
“it’s hard to imagine anyone not finding something on ‘The Folk Sinner’ to help you fly right down the highway to wherever you’re headed.”
No Depression
“Lee Harvey Osmond has just set the bar to an unthinkable apex for 2013 with the release of The Folk Sinner.” Spill Magazine
“The Folk Sinner is one of those rare albums that feels absolutely complete.” Grayowl Point
The new Lee Harvey Osmond album is now available through their website and in fine Canadian record stores everywhere. The album features a beautiful duet with Margo and guest appearances by many of Canada's best musicians, singers and songwriters. So far it has been garnering a lot of great press and attention. We think most of you will appreciate it's spooky vibe and contrarian nature….in other words it sounds real cool.Here is the new video for the song "Break Your Body" featuring a beautiful Judy Garland-ess vocal by one of Canada's treasures, Hawksley Workman, and featuring a debut acting performance by Kathleen Edwards. Take a listen (there is a free player below)…if you like it, buy it and/or share it with your friends….we need more people like you.
We are very excited about an upcoming Latent Recordings release. Next Tuesday we will be releasing Lee Harvey Osmonds second album "The Folk Sinner". The album was produced and recorded by…me….so I may be biased, but it is a folkin' fine piece of work (get it?). It includes performances by many of Canada's musical luminati like Hawksley Workman, Oh Susanna, members of The Skydiggers and The Sadies and a beautiful duet with Margo. You can take a listen to the album for free at Exclaim.ca . And if you pre-order the album before next Tuesday you will get two free bonus tracks (including a very cool version of the Rolling Stones "Dear Doctor" featuring a duet with Mary Gauthier). So please support the burgeoning acid-folk movement and at the very least take a listen. Here is the first video from the album for the song Devil's Load. It is taken from the film "My Father And The Man In Black" which features some LHO music and a film score written and recorded by….me. Enjoy.
Lee Harvey Osmond recently stopped by the World Cafe studios with Aaron Goldstein in tow. Take a listen to their session.
Parkland is a track from the recent Lee Harvey Osmond cd (available for your enjoyment on this very website – listen for free, buy for cheap). It is also a song off of the much-rumoured-about-album The Kennedy Suite, which we have been working on (and off) for the past 18 months. The album is a suite of songs about the JFK assassination, written by our friend Scott Garbe. Each song in the suite is from the perspective of a historical or fictional character involved, in some manner, with the events of that tragic day. Its a brilliant collection of songs and the album will feature performances by several Canadian artists. We hope to have it out in 2010. In the meantime here is a video that someone made for the song Parkland, which is a song written from the perspective of an orderly working at Parkland hospital that day. Enjoy.
Parkland
Sun through the window like a boogey man
Unfinished curtains on the nightstand
Alarm clock bounces off my head
Phone is ringing beside my bed
My son is dressed and waiting on the step
It’s the head nurse calling from Parkland.
I got a kid and his name’s John-John
Born the same day as the President’s son
Today is the day of the big parade
But they’re short at work and it’s double pay
That means a new scooter on your birthday
But the president will have to wait….
Take public transit 109
Bounce out at the Parkland sign
Bring him to work and show him around
Grab that bucket. Mop and gown
Towels and bedsheets, blankets and diapers
Wheel him around in the laundry hamper
John was the Prez, a mop was Jackie K.
We were a two-man motorcade
A girl stopped skipping to watch us shoot past
He blew her a kiss and then through the glass
Of the emergency doors we turned to see
Blood and roses, guns and grief
Bring him in and lay him down
John, bring the surgeons gloves and gowns
Through the black suits darting to and fro
I could see her shaking and alone
John-John put that bullet back
And offer Mrs. Kennedy your hand
Hold it tight ‘till her cryings done
And don’t look back, I won’t be long…
I brought fresh linen for the President
I watched the doctors pronounce him dead
Then a light voice said, “Is this your son?
He held my hand and my cryin’s done.”
Then John-John said, “You better get along,
You’ve got a birthday party to plan when you get home.”
She bent down and kissed my John-John’s face
Smoothed down her bloody dress into place
And with her son’s love as her staff
She lifted a nation on her back
She turned and nodded, we nodded back
As they carried her husband from Parkland…John-John put that bullet back
Our good friend Lee Harvey Osmond is beginning to make noise and get noticed down in the good-ole USA. Here is a recent review from Blurt. If you haven’t yet checked out the album…why not….??
LeE HARVeY OsMOND
A Quiet Evil
(Latent)
Let’s see here… released on the Cowboy Junkies’ own label; produced and recorded by the CJ’s Michael Timmins; features both Michael and sister Margo, with the other members of the Junkies making guest appearances; includes a cover of an obscure CJ tune, “Angels In the Wilderness”; even mastered by the Junkies’ longtime cohort Peter J. Moore; must be a Cowboy Junkies side project, right?
Not exactly. LeE HARVeY OsMOND is the brainchild of Tom Wilson, from Blackie & the Rodeo Kings, who conceived of the project as a kind of Canadian musical collective – hence the involvement of the Timminses et al, not to mention fellow Rodeo King Colin Linden, members of the Skydiggers and a handful of others. Wilson wrote or co-wrote most of the material and sings and plays guitar, so it’s clearly his baby, although as the notes above suggest, Cowboy Junkies fans and band trainspotters will find much about A Quiet Evil to cheer. In fact, several tunes have a familiar opiated twang and nocturnal ambiance: the spookywoozycool “Blade of Grass,” with its hushed vocal and backwards guitar swirl; the quietly intense, fuzztone-flecked blooze of “Summer Girl”; and of course pedal steel/B3-powered weeper “You Drove Me Crazy (Now I’m Gonna Stay That Way)” – how’s that for a great song title – which features Wilson and Margo Timmins in classic country duet mode.
All that aside, A Quiet Evil ultimately lives up to its titular suggestion; there’s an understated quality here barely masking a lurking sense of desperation and malevolence. From the simmering “Lucifer’s Blues” (check Wilson’s part-spoken, part-sung vocal, which with his deep voice suggests a cross between Chuck Prophet and Dave Alvin) to a searing, edge-of-psychosis cover of Lou Reed’s “I Can’t Stand It,” the record’s steeped in a kind of gothic noir ambiance. This is only made all the more unsettling by the demented cover art, a Satanic-looking dog/rabbit mutant with sharp fangs and jutting phallus. And what’s up with the upper/lower case lettering scheme of the band name? Is there some kind of subliminal messaging going on?
Wilson may or may not have spent time in that part of Canada where the weird sunlight schedule has been known to drive folks a little bit crazy, but on the evidence of this album, he’s definitely a lotta bit twisted, so beware. Twisted in a good way, of course…
Standout Tracks: “Queen Bee,” “Blade of Grass,” “Angel In the Wilderness,” “I Can’t Stand It” FRED MILLS
Lee Harvey Osmond took time during the day off yesterday to make an appearance on XM radio’s The Loft. Check it out:
