Thomas McCallum isn’t concerned with making you dance. He’d rather tell you a tale. He’d rather make you think. In a world where dancing is all but outlawed he finds himself in comfortable territory; a story in his heart and a song on his lips.
McCallum’s latest release, Many a Long Hour, sees him sitting quietly with his acoustic guitar; contemplating life with the slow, measured ease he has become known for. His 2014 EP, Crocus Song, was the perfect precursor for his full-length debut; picking up the story where McCallum left it off, but as they say, “There’s no use getting older if you’re not getting wiser.” This album shows us that Thomas McCallum has taken that advice to heart.
One of the things McCallum has learned the last handful of years is to surround himself with extraordinary musicians. He did it on his EP, and he’s done it again. Lydia Mainville (cello, vocals), Karis Tees (vocals), Aaron Comeau (guitar, electric bass, piano, pump organ), Michael Eckert (pedal steel), and Kinley Dowling (violin, viola) round out this album’s roster and the effect is stunning. Lush string arrangements, nimble guitar work, and tight vocal harmonies are the champions here, and none more so than the singing of Karis Tees.
Tees and McCallum met ‘round a campfire at a university retreat years ago, and have been singing together ever since. That kind of time spent translates beautifully onto this record which was mixed and produced by Aaron Comeau.
The album’s opening song, “In The Hills,” is our first taste of this vocal interplay, and it introduces our ears to what will be the tone of the rest of the record. Songs like “Mary Pratt,” “Peter and Anna,” and “Transfiguration Day,” are as solid examples of a male/female vocal pairing as you’ll find. McCallum remembers employing the ‘Simon and Garfunkel technique’ of watching each other’s mouths move while singing to get the phrasing and inflection just right. The hard work and attention to detail have paid off.
John Prine was a big fan of duets, and he wrote and performed them with many great female singers. Thomas McCallum is a big John Prine fan, so it’s no stretch that Prine’s influence has crept into his writing. We see it vocally with the aforementioned harmony parts, and on the song, “Canada,” the music is a direct nod to the man who McCallum considers one of his heroes.
“Canada. You can get betrayed here,” he sings in a voice so calm and plain that you could forget the weight of the statement. McCallum is as proud a Canadian as you will find. He spends his time telling Canadians stories about other Canadians through his words and music. The country is simply too large for many of us to ever really see much of it, so McCallum has always admired people like Stan Rogers and Stompin’ Tom Connors for their ability to bring us all together through song. During a Cree ceremony in Saskatchewan he found himself doing the same thing; singing with a group of people he’d never met, in a place he may never get back to. They sang together but in different languages, and the takeaway for both sides was simple: connection.
It’s this type of connection that has McCallum eager to get back on the road; a road he shared with Halifax songwriter Al Tuck when they toured together in 2016. “Al Tuck has been one of my most important mentors. He’s a nexus of creative energy,” says McCallum who, while on the road with Tuck, found himself in Quebec City staring at ‘Les Muses’ (A statue by the Quebec sculptor and painter Alfred Laliberté). The monument, which features six life-sized bronze statues, affected McCallum so deeply that he took his hat off while he stood and stared at it.
It’s these moments and these connections that McCallum longs for. He sees the business and the hustle, and the marketing and promotion that go along with the release of an album, but he’d rather sing the songs and tell the stories.
He should get his chance soon. Armed with a great new record, and a need to let people know about it, he will make his way around the country once again, and if you’re lucky he’ll stop and sing you a song.