Rollaway's EPK
"The Return..." new CD info and graphic
MP3s from The Return....
Rollaway: EPK and Bio
Bio
Rollaway has seen a number of changes over the last few years that have landed them in the heart of East Vancouver. Their new album, The Return of the Lonesome Coyote Patchwork Pulpit, and Sundry Other Tales from the Rainbow's End, reflects the newest progression of a band headlined by expat Georgian singer-songwriter Benton Roark as he teams up with up-and-coming BC talents Jen Lewin (keyboard, vocals), Adam Tryczynski (guitar, vocals), Adam Jones (bass, vocals), Martin Reisle (pedal steel, banjo, vocals), Brian Nesselroad (drums), and New York transplant Sarah Wolfman-Robichaud (vocals and percussion). The album, comprised of original compositions by Roark, unites his Southern warmth with the brasher, experimental styles of Rollaway’s Vancouverites to come up with a sound that is unique in the Vancouver music scene - y’allternative.
The sound is what you might imagine given the history of the writer and producer (Roark), who also works in the avant-garde classical realm: a quasi-conceptual and highly-artistic blend of Southern gothic, ramshackle West-coast roots, and dark romanticism. At times painfully honest and at others mysteriously mythical, the well-crafted poetry is set to five-part harmony, raucous guitars, ethereal pedal steel work, vintage Rhodes and Hammond colours, lush strings, and upright bass-driven, big-beat rhythm.
The track Old Crow Man exemplifies the style of the album, moving from a gospel-style opening into a dirty, guitar-driven sound that builds in intensity all the way through the final chorus. Songs such as Paperhat Loveboat and Desolation Sound mix a poetic melancholia into the album to balance the faster pace of Old Crow Man, The Lone Coyote Comin' 'Round, Northern Star, and Underneath Grey Havens. Rollaway does let its Southern roots show in songs like Oh Tallulah, River in My Dreams, a big beat ballad reminiscent of The Band. Other dark, sundry tales such as Blood Sun Rising and Where the Wind Blows Tenderly round out an indie album with depth, vision, and somehow despite the band’s eclectic origins, an unmistakable sense of its Vancouver home.
Rollaway brings together the various influences of southern rock, blues, jazz, country, and folk into a style reminiscent of classic outfits like The Allman Brothers and The Band, and more contemporary groups like My Morning Jacket, Fleet Foxes, and Neko Case. The band's six members have spent the last two years honing their sound and refining each of the tracks off this new album, playing gigs and packing houses at local Vancouver hotspots such as The Railway Club, The Yale Hotel, and The Media Club. They have ventured so far as Seattle and Portland and are currently contemplating a tour across Canada and down into the good ol’ South.