The title of The Small Glories’ sophomore full-length Assiniboine and the Red is a reference to the confluence of the two rivers in Winnipeg, Manitoba – the hometown Cara Luft (the Wailin’ Jennys) and nasally-voiced multi-instrumentalist JD Edwards. Assiniboine and The Red is a tribute to the beauty of Canada replete with beautiful harmonies, fiddles, banjos, guitars, and percussion. The album was produced by 54-40 frontman Neil Osborne, who pairs those harmonies with Luft’s acoustic guitar and claw hammer banjo, Edwards’ acoustic and electric guitars, and drummer Mark Mariah, bassist Giles Fournier, engineer Lloyd Peterson on keys as well as nine other guests who bring something unique to each song. Standout tracks include: “Alberta” a love song praising the beauty of the homeland; the heartbreaker about love, loss and waiting in “Long, Long Moon”; the haunting “Pieces of Me”; a track about the people refusing to leave dying prairie towns in “Don’t Back Down”; the socio-political “Sing”; the rambling “Johnson Slide”; and the shuffling country-tinged number, “You Can’t Be High.” Assiniboine and the Red is a solid album that easily places The Small Glories alongside lauded contemporaries like Civil Wars, Mandolin Orange, and Shovels and Rope. – Written by JFelton
SIMILAR | Civil Wars, Gillian Welch, Mandolin Orange, Shovels and Rope, Lula Wiles