While I wouldn’t be so quick to put “Nashwaak”, the latest single from Rick Sparkes + The Enablers, into the box of “country music” – a nebulous genre that is often dwarfed by its own industry, eschewing the wild soul and charm that is supposed to be endemic to “country culture” – the song manages to not only capture that spirit but also build off it in a meaningful way.
“Nashwaak” has that type of nostalgic tone that is very difficult to purposely produce: that feel of recalling different days that happened so long ago the memory could have a sepia tone to it. The harmonizing of both the vocals and the acoustic and electric guitars help breathe new life into an old story, and while I cannot say “Nashwaak” reinvents the wheel, there’s never been a need to when you can stop it from flying off the bandwagon.
It’s a love story about a place, and that’s often a difficult thing to pull off in the way that Rick Sparkes + The Enablers have managed to. They evoke the feel of New Brunswick’s more rural areas, not through stereotypes or even really through description, but through the instrumentals. Sparkes cites the inspiration for “Nashwaak” as being the scenic riverside settlement along the river of the same name, explaining that he wrote the song in honour of his paternal grandparents and “the area of New Brunswick in which they grew up and fell in love in.
Even without that heartwarming context, Sparkes’s refreshing take on the tried-and-true style of country music bodes well for the rest of their album that is to be released later this summer. If it were a dish, “Nashwaak” by Rick Sparkes + The Enablers would be savory, with a light maple glaze and the aftertaste of smoked cheddar. I’m sure that’s more accurate than any rating system.