Howdy Readers,
Between pickin’ rocks, playin’ bass, and producin’ tunes, a guy’s gotta intentionally set some time aside to do the actual work of self-promotion and keeping those that are moving the ship forward in the loop.
“Arizona” is live on all streaming platforms
Big news off the top here for Western Seer Records - we released some brand new music from Lachlan Neville. “Arizona” was one of the first tunes I heard Lachlan play when I spent the day at his family ranch outside of Rocanville back in 2023 (catch-up on our backstory here: The Ballad of Lachlan Neville - Part I & Part II )
Spoiler alert: Part III includes an old friend of my wife’s, Josh Gwilliam, stepping up to the plate and inviting us into his space at OCL studios outside of Calgary to get some songs to tape. “Arizona” is from that session.
This track is going to be foundational to Western Seer’s infrastructure - every listen, stream, share and championing is wind in the sails. If you have yourself a playlist - we would be grateful for an add…more news to come in regard to Lachlan’s new tune, “Arizona” but for now, please enjoy…
And because I’m such a geek for album credits:
ARIZONA
written by Lachlan Neville
produced by Blake Berglund
engineered and mixed by Josh Gwilliam at OCL studios (Chestermere, AB)
pre-mastering tape transfer by Graham Lessard (Calgary, AB)
mastering by Brock McFarlane at CPS Mastering (Vancouver, BC)
photography by little jack films
graphic design by Blake Berglund
Musicians:
Lachlan Neville - vocals, acoustic guitar
Blake Berglund - vocals, acoustic guitar, organ
Bryn Besse - vocals, electric guitar
Denis Dufresne - fiddle
Patrick Lyons - pedal steel
Mitch Jay - pedal steel, banjo
Brian Kelly - bass
Jeffrey Romanyk - drums
Chris Dimas - percussion
Dauphin Countryfest & The Calgary Stampede
Don’t get me wrong, the crew that we’ve surrounded ourselves with, as far as road warriors, go couldn’t get much better musician-wise…but the hang is the gig. And if you ain’t a good hang, you don’t get the gig.
Couldn’t ask for a better hang:
After driving around Dauphin at 1 am due to a hospitality mix-up we ended up getting a hotel upgrade and finishing the weekend off in Clear Lake. Thanks to 1929 Dining & Lounge for packing the house for us and amping the energy over the course of a three hour show. It was legit youthful insanity - and fabulous eats. We missed having Bryn in the mix as he was dedicated to a Jeffery Straker gig in Greenwater Lake…and possibly for the better as the venue may not have still been standing.
Then, off to work we went - two days of woodshedding at the Herman Ranch West Camp outside of Redcliffe, AB finding our way as a trio with Lachlan, myself and my long-time steel player (and country music mentor), Tim Herman. Reference, 2014’s Jasper which I recorded alongside my Van-sized Vultures at the Jasper Royal Canadian Legion Branch 31 - yet another documented barn-burner.
The Calgary Stampede consisted of 13 sets in 5 days, predominantly bunking up at The Palomino Smokehouse with a trek to compete our run north of Lloydminster at the Dogpatch Music Festival site for a semi-private affair. If y’all haven’t experience the infrastructure alone at this site, it’s worth the trip to their upcoming formal festival. Marc Butler is clearly a visionary. Our drummer, Jeffrey, returned from an 11 day run in France to make the 7 hour drive to join us for an all-nighter. Good folks up there, from the tire shop crew that fixed flat for us 15 minutes before close to the entire Dirt Road Maniacs band that put on a clinic into the wee hours of the morning. Also, great green room hangs with members of the Black Eyed Crees (best band name ever). I slept for four hours and headed back to Regina via Medicine Hat - and if you know your geography, that’s a 7 hour detour - and well worth it to have Tim in the van for the week.
I’m itching to share more Western Seer Records news…just locking down the details.
Appreciate those that have attended my limited live appearances as of lately…I’m sure enjoying my behind the scenes roles - that said, I still have a storage room containing boxes of What’s Left of the Right that predominantly move through a balance of stepping up on stage and Substack subscriptions coming in. As always, hit that subscription button, and get the record to your door-step. And the more records on door-steps, the more new music comes out of our camp.
