Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Evening Hymns (SCQ’s Year-End Questionnaire Part III)

From the second I heard ‘Lanterns’, the first song from his arresting new album Spirit Guides, I knew Evening Hymns had just given 2009 a tremendous shot in the arm. I had the good fortune to catch the man behind the moniker, Jonas Bonnetta, the evening before his record officially dropped, and he dives into these questions with the honesty his album is dripping with. (Photo by Peter Chatterton)

SCQ: What have been some of your favourite records of 2009? Gush away.

Cass McCombs-Catacombs, Dirty Projectors-Bitte Orca, Mountains-Choral, R. Kelly-12 Play:4th Quarter (although not officially released), Sam Amidon-All is Well, Phosphorescent-To Willie, Timber Timbre-S/T

SCQ: Be it from the radio, lost on Myspace or from your roster, what song(s) could you not stop spinning?

‘Something Hiding For Us In The Night’ and ‘(Bit) Part’ by The Wooden Sky. Before this record came out I’d go to their Myspace and listen over and over… so much Tom Petty in those songs it’s great. The whole record is really beautiful but those two songs had me hooked. I’m really overplaying Washed Out’s “Feel It All Around” right now. I just got back from being on the road out west and it felt really nice to play that song near the beach.

SCQ: Seldom celebrated but crucial to The Album’s identity is cover-art. Can you offer any shortlist of personal favourites from the past year?

Bill Callahan-Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle, Mt. Eerie-Wind’s Poem (always a contender for best album artwork), Bonnie Prince Billy-Beware.

I guess Mt. Eerie takes it for me. That dude always blows everyone out of the water when it comes to artwork. It starts with the cover and then as you open it up it gets more and more epic. His release “No Flashlight” is probably my favorite packaging of all time.

SCQ: When you look back on what transpired this year, what will stand out as your most memorable musical moment(s) of 2009?

Getting signed to Out Of This Spark was pretty memorable. I’m really excited to be working with them. The label is really focused on the artist and allows me to be pretty flexible in how I want to work. I got to open for some great bands that I’m a fan of too. That was a thrill. The biggest deal was probably finishing the record. It started out pretty small and ended up turning into this larger affair that we tried to wrangle. That was a real accomplishment that I’m really happy with.

SCQ: Most of us probably haven’t thought as far as New Years Eve plans but still, looking forward, what do you have on the horizon for 2010?

I just want to tour a lot. I’d like to take Evening Hymns more into the U.S. and would like to go to Europe. I’m slowly forming a band to play these songs with me and i’m excited to travel and play some new towns.

I’m also really excited to start recording another record right now. I know that as I type this my record comes out in like 5 minutes but I’m really looking forward to taking all the things I learned with Spirit Guides and putting it towards something new. I’ve started demoing things now and hope to start another record at some point early in 2010. I’d like to do a vinyl only release. Maybe some 7″ releases or something. Who knows..

http://theskeletoncrewquarterly.blogspot.com/2009/12/evening-hymns-scqs-year-end.html

Spirit Guides

Evening Hymns and The Harbour Coats at The Tranzac in Toronto

Frank YangThe Bellwoods crew is certainly setting a high standard when it comes to set dressings. Thanks to them, I’ve now attended shows in the heart of a volcano, an exploding library in the sky and as of this past Friday night, a heavily wooded lumberjack camp. In reality, it was the Tranzac and the occasion was the record release party for Evening Hymns’ new album Spirit Guides; a grand and gauzey statement of gospel-inflected folk-rock which is quite highly-regarded around these parts.

Support for the night came from The Harbour Coats, who on most occasions are a miniature Canadian super-group of sorts with members of Constantines, Snailhouse and Evening Hymns principal Jonas Bonnetta but on this night, due to logistical issues, were just frontman Bry Webb and an acoustic guitar and his own And if the oft-repeated reference point for Constantines is a heavier Springsteen, then Harbour Coats is a nod to the Boss’ more stripped-down side. Decked out head to toe in blue Christmas lights, Webb turned in a short set of tunes rich with images of the Canadian north and proving that he was as compelling and charismatic a songwriter a performer outside the Cons as he was with them.

At one point in the set, Jonas Bonnetta mentioned that this was pretty much his first-ever headlining show and for the occasion, he did it up right. Enlisting many/most of the contributors who played on Spirit Guides, Evening Hymns ranged from Bonnetta solo to a stage-filling 10-piece band including members of The Wooden Sky, Ohbijou, The Magic and The D’Urbervilles as well as a couple of his own siblings. And though all the parts were in place to recreate the expansive beauty of Spirit Guides – the stage even looked the part of the record’s rustic aesthetic – it would prove to more a question of chemistry than mathematics.

Though the show began strongly and remained so as the band’s numbers ebbed and flowed, at one point leaving Bonnetta to perform solo for a few numbers from his first record Farewell To Harmony, to my ears they weren’t quite managing to capture the ineffable specialness of the recorded work. And there’s no shame in that – to catch lightning in a bottle once and commit it to tape is a feat, to be able to do it again and on demand is asking a lot. But as the show progressed, it became evident that things were starting to coalesce and by the time the band’s numbers swelled for what was clearly the climax of the show, for which they’d wisely saved the record’s biggest moments, they were sounding like something much greater than the sum of its parts, in the same way that Spirit Guides is much more than the sum of its influences and reference points. As if cued by the bold organ of “Tumultuous Sea”, the show found a new level and through the encore and its gloriously jubilant readings of “Broken Rifle” and “Mtn. Song”, all crashing chords, thundering percussion and choral vocals, it was finally everything it could have been.

With so many of the record’s performers involved with other bands, it’s a bit difficult to envision how they could take this record on the road and do it the same sort of justice they did on this evening. This is not to say it can’t be just as effective and affecting with a different configuration, and I’m sure that however they end up taking it on tour, even if it’s just Bonnetta solo, it will be its own kind of special but I’m pretty pleased to have been able to witness it with the original cast, so to speak.

Soundproof and The Vancouver Sun have interviews with Bonnetta and London Burgeoning Metropolis, another review of the show.

http://www.chromewaves.net/2009/12/evening-hymns-and-the-harbour-coats-at-the-tranzac-in-toronto/

Quick & Dirty – Evening Hymns

By: Andrew Horan

Photo: courtesy of the artist

Evening Hymns

^{December 2, 2009 – Peterborough, Canada}

The title of Evening Hymns’ latest effort has taken on a special meaning for founding member Jonas Bonnetta.

Spirit Guides has literally been a spiritual guide for Bonnetta. He was going through a difficult time when he worked on the sophomore album, his first full-length under the Evening Hymns moniker after releasing a solo effort under his own name in 2007.

“I’m not a religious person but I think of myself as being somewhat spiritual, and I think that the record, for me, was happening in a certain part of my life where it was the only thing that was keeping me going forward, and so I thought of it very much as a spiritual guide,” Bonnetta explains.

While it may sound cliché, he says that working on the album helped him to stay positive. Though the bet he made with Casey Mecija of Ohbijou also helped with the motivation. They were chatting online when Bonnetta confided he was having trouble writing. Mecija told him that she was as well. Meanwhile, Ohbijou were putting the finishing touches on their sophomore release, Beacons.

The two eventually settled on having to have their albums recorded by the spring. It was then that Mecija recommended Ohbijou drummer James Bunton to Bonnetta for production duties.

Bunton was a fan of Evening Hymns’ starkly beautiful country and folk songs and agreed immediately. The pair completed Spirit Guides over the course of four days during the holidays at the end of 2008 at an art gallery in Peterborough, Bonnetta’s hometown.

“It’s this beautiful room. It (has) wood floors and really huge ceilings that are 20 feet high,” Bonnetta says.

It was a bit of a change from his past home recordings. It was also a reflection of the transitory stage Evening Hymns is in right now. The one-time solo project has evolved into a not-quite full-fledged band that has just started to test drive on the road.

According to Bonnetta, playing with a band came about out of necessity. There are some nights where playing a quiet acoustic set is fine, but other nights require something a bit louder.

“I’ve definitely wanted to make the sound bigger and do more with it live because, as a solo musician, you can only do so much on your own before it becomes a real magic show,” he says.

So, he’s been gradually integrating the band into Evening Hymns’ sets. When SoundProof caught up with Bonnetta, he hoped to have the group on stage for most of the set within a couple of weeks.

Having recently moved to Toronto from Peterborough, the band isn’t the only thing changing in Bonnetta’s life. Though the move to the city was a “no-brainer” given his association with Ohbijou and the Bellwoods scene, Bonnetta confesses that he misses living in Peterborough. He’s still in the process of trying to balance his day job operating a sawmill with his music.

“I find that more difficult being in the city now, to flip the switch on and off like I used to be able to do,” he confides. “It’s more difficult to be a city guy, staying up late and playing shows. To go out and operate my sawmill is friggin’ impossible now.”

http://www.soundproofmagazine.com/Canada/Features/Quick_Dirty_-_Evening_Hymns.html

There’s an unmistakable warmth on Spirit Guides, the debut full-length from Evening Hymns, a.k.a. southern Ontario folk hero Jonas Bonnetta. It’s a warmth that transforms the nine patient, building tracks from simple finger-picking heartbeats into lush, sweeping strokes of near-perfect orchestral pop. Bonnetta hasn’t released heaps of music recently, but it’s hard to fault him for taking his time. After all, the emotional buildup that permeates Spirit Guides creates a currency all its own. One that measures wealth in tears, stirring tales of regret and memories that seem to shake very core of Bonnetta’s grave and humbling voice. “Dead Deer” is the emotional breadwinner of the album, using healthy doses of temperate accordion and sweeping strings as a means to throw sticks on the fire. This isn’t campfire music, though, these are songs you’re meant to lock into on the coldest of nights and not let go.  8/10

http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/116997-evening-hymns-spirit-guides/

Hymns of love and spirits

(photo: outofthisspark.com)

There’s a kind of hush that opens “Lanterns”, the first track of Spirit Guides by Evening Hymns that reminds me of standing alone in a sacred space, dimly lit, with just your thoughts for company.  The tone of the album is one of contemplation, or yearning for some understanding and meaning of life, love; a longing for answers that probably don’t exist, and may very well just lead to more questions and confusion.  That being said, it’s also a gorgeous album of stark beauty and lushness, and has an underlying sense of redemption and hope that seems to render all else moot.

Jonas Bonnetta is originally from Orono, Ontario and currently calls Peterborough his home.  His music very much echoes that of his friends and label mates on Out of This Spark (Ohbijou, The Wooden Sky and Forest City Lovers), making his spiritual home a little closer to the heart of Southern Ontario’s rising musical mecca.  When I first heard “Mtn. Song” I could swear I was listening to The Acorn, but much like Frank Chromewaves, I quickly realized that to try and make musical comparisons with Evening Hymns is to ignore the impressive beauty of the music itself.  Regardless of the talent that has joined him on these recordings, all their skill would be for naught if it weren’t for Bonetta’s expressive vocals and wondrous songwriting.  “Tumultuous Sea” even gets a little funky, showing that there’s more to Evening Hymns than just melancholy and pain.  Through swelling horns and a chorus of hand claps, the clouds break and a ray of sun breaks forth, and you know is all going to be alright.

At a time of the year when thoughts and minds have turned to year-end lists and encapsulating the last twelve months, Evening Hymns have given me that rarest of treats:  an album of breathtaking beauty that I didn’t even know I was missing.  Bonetta celebrates teh release of the LP tonight with a free in-store at Soundscapes (572 College Street, Toronto) at 7PM and a full show at the Tranzac (292 Brunswick Avenue, Toronto) on December 4.

http://www.quickbeforeitmelts.com/2009/12/hymns-of-love-and-spirits-2/