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Tequila Mockingbird Orchestra in town May 14
Tequila Mockingbird Orchestra has wandered from the underground of bohemian Victoria, in Canadaâs lush West Coast, to a new, refined sound crafted by years of constant performing and touring together.
Drawing on flamenco flourishes learned in Spain, on African percussion, on bluegrass and other roots music from across the Americas, TMO has cycled through far-flung influences and youthful forays into sounds from all over, finding new vistas of creativity that bring them closer to their own beginnings, to the people and places that have shaped them. Friends and family, ancestors and wild characters are all honoured on Follow My Lead, Lead Me to Follow, the bandâs third and most mature studio effort, with a sound thatâs distinct, earthy, and solid.
âOur sound comes from spending a lot of time together. Itâs a creation of living,â explains Kurt Loewen, the bandâs guitarist. âThe process with all the songs was so organic. But at the same time, 90% of them took a long time to get into the repertoire. It took two full years of touring, of us being together all the time, rehearsing, recording, leaving things off and putting them back on the set list. These songs are a creation of living.â
âWhen people ask, âWhat influences you most?,â I have to answer, âBeing part of the band,ââ Griffiths adds. âThere are other meta-influences in the background, but the biggest influence is the band itself. Our life together, the people we meet inspire new tunes.â
TMO has toured major cities, playing club dates and living in vans, like many young bands. But they also find themselves playing smaller towns and venues, places where the entire local population would gather for a showâand then demand they play all night. The spirit of these places and these audiences left their mark, especially the Gulf Islands in B.C.âs Strait of Georgia, an archipelago harbouring beautiful, peaceful spots and wonderfully eccentric people (as well as being home to Wolda, who hails from Cortes Island). This close rapportâand willingness to take on the third-set challenge, to listen to the spirit of placeâshaped TMO.
The band evolved, slowly refining their initial burst of quirky, spontaneous jams, where songs in Spanish (the hot âXo Tangoâ) might alternate with funny bluegrass numbers (Sadie), and wry waltzes might segue into percussive folk-punk. The bandâs consensus-based, thoughtful process of arranging, shifting, performing became a crucible for mellowing and combining the groupâs scattered musical influences.
While the bandâs original youthful, playful energy remains palpable on Follow my Lead, Lead me to Follow, the band channels all that heat and light into firm, elegant boundaries. The musicians spent months together, playing, arranging, discussing, before hitting the studio to record the album with David Travers-Smith (Deerhoof, Kiran Ahluwalia, Wailinâ Jennys). The long spell together lent a new tightness to the bandâs performance, a focus and sixth-sense responsiveness that resonates on the album (Lives be Brave) and on stage. As a result, the group sounds truly orchestral, with rich arrangements that take full advantage of their instrumentsâ unique colours.
An engagement with the past may be bittersweet, but it underlies the bandâs tight and joyful ties to a vibrant sense of place, whether itâs a farm on the Canadian prairies or an idyllic rocky island. âOur common thread is the place, the people,â Griffiths smiles. âWhen weâre out on Cortes Island or in Saskatchewan, itâs the sense of place that are the common threads. Thereâs a place, thereâs the sentiment that connects us.â
Discover Tequila Mockingbird Orchestra for yourself Thursday, May 14 at Key City Theatre. Tickets are $25 and $20 for Key City Theatre Members; available at the Key City Theatre Box Office 250-426-7006Â and Online at www.keycitytheatre.com.
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