To tell the story of Skydiggers is to tell the story of a thriving musical collaboration that was born in friendship and has abided with trust. Over the course of 15 studio albums and countless miles on the road, Skydiggers have grown from enthusiastic youngsters into husbands, fathers, and mentors. And while band members have changed over the decades, Josh Finlayson and Andy Maize remain its beating heart. With new collaborators bringing their unique musical histories into the circle, the sound of Skydiggers continues to evolve.
Their new music is a captivating collection showcasing Skydiggers’ ability to weave rich narratives around complex characters navigating complicated times. The first EP, Hide Your Light, is a celebration of life, community, and connection. The second EP, Bide Your Time, features another stellar collection of six new songs, including “One Song at a Time” – a heartfelt tribute to their dear friend Dallas Good of The Sadies.
Though some of these new songs veer from the traditional roots of their folk-rock beginnings, the sound and spirit of the music is distinctly Skydiggers – music made by friends, for friends.
To tell the story of Skydiggers is to tell the story of a thriving musical collaboration that was born in friendship and has abided with trust. Over the course of 15 studio albums and countless miles on the road, Skydiggers have grown from enthusiastic youngsters into husbands, fathers, and mentors. And while band members have changed over the decades, Josh Finlayson and Andy Maize remain its beating heart. With new collaborators bringing their unique musical histories into the circle, the sound of Skydiggers continues to evolve.
Their newest work, Hide Your Light, Bide Your Time (Latent Recordings), was recorded over a three-month span in 2022 at Baker Studios in Saanich, British Columbia. The two albums were released as a special vinyl edition on November 1, 2023.
The band’s early anthems about the uncertainties of youth are now joined by songs that wear the badges of lives lived and journeys traveled. Skydiggers music shares the stories of our losses, reminds us of our dreams, and paints an optimistic picture of the world the way we wish it could be.
Roots, Country, Rock, Jazz, Folk, and even Latin leanings are all part of the musical alchemy of Hide Your Light, Bide Your Time. “Recording on Vancouver Island was a chance to isolate from some of the world’s concerns and just focus on creating again”, Andy explains. “I think the record went to a different place musically than if we just converged in a studio down the street.” Whatever the style, the music forms a solid foundation for the enduring honesty of the songwriting voices of Maize and Finlayson.
“Music is best created in an environment of trust”, shares Josh. “Joby Baker produced Andy’s solo album, so we came to the studio with a personal connection and faith in his vision. Joby knows what it is we do and with that foundation, he was able to help us reach what we hope is an even higher level. Working with Joby also allowed us to reconnect with some of the West Coast musicians we’ve been privileged to collaborate with over the years.”
The contributions of multi-instrumentalist and co-producer Joby Baker, the fiddle and trumpet virtuosity of Pender Island’s Daniel Lapp, and the string arrangements of Victoria’s Richard Moody, all play a part in the lush tapestry on Skydiggers most ambitious album in their already accomplished career.
A career that began with a friendship between Josh and Andy in the halls of a Toronto school grew into a musical partnership in the 1980’s under the tutelage of Andrew Cash’s Acoustic Meltdown held in the Beverage Room of the Spadina Hotel. It was a time of possibility. It was a time of community.
“Whether it was Cowboy Junkies, the Hi Fi’s or L’Etranger, it was a time when, on any given night, in any venue in downtown Toronto’s west end, you could hear performers who would go on to become icons”, remembers Andy. “As we were finding out what kind of band we would become, we were able to learn from the things they were doing.”
When Andrew’s brother Peter Cash teamed up with Josh and Andy, the chemistry was electric. Ron Macey (bass) and Wayne Stokes (drums) kept the time and Skydiggers was born. Their combined voices and talents produced a new sound, one completely original that drew in audiences, including many of the very artists they were inspired by. From its earliest incarnation, a Skydiggers show meant a chance to connect with friends, to dance and sing along.
Their new music continues this tradition and is a captivating collection showcasing Skydiggers’ ability to weave rich narratives around complex characters navigating complicated times. The first EP, Hide Your Light, is a celebration of life, community, and connection; from the bittersweet nostalgia of “My City Is Gone” to the sublime vocal interplay between Josh and long-time collaborator Jessy Bell Smith on the title track, and the poignant remembrance of those who passed too soon in “A Wednesday.”
The album garnered support from Spill Magazine, Indie88, with The Walleye saying, “The songwriting is exceptional. Love, loss, and hope sum up the themes,” The Belleville Intelligencer declaring “This sonic departure for the Skydiggers is bold, lush and textured.” FYI Music News’ Kerry Doole said, “Hide Your Light reaffirms Skydiggers as a national music treasure with an extensive and consistently high-quality discography matched by few peers. Long may they dig!”
For the second EP, Bide Your Time, the album features another stellar collection of six new songs including “Employee of the Myth” – a song that was inspired by an episode of David Letterman’s ‘My Next Guest Needs No Introduction’ featuring King of Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan, “Just Another Lucky Day” takes fans back sonically to the early recordings from the band, while “One Song at a Time” is a heartfelt tribute to their dear friend Dallas Good of The Sadies.
“These songs carry a common mood that is somewhere between wistful and contemplative”, Andy explains. “The architecture of these stories allowed us to draw on our musical influences and immerse our listeners into each song’s time and place.”
Though some of these new songs veer from the traditional roots of their folk-rock beginnings, the sound and spirit of the music is distinctly Skydiggers – music made by friends, for friends.
PRAISE FOR HIDE YOUR LIGHT EP – June 2023
“This sonic departure for the Skydiggers is bold, lush and textured.” – David Reed, Belleville Intelligencer
“The songwriting is exceptional. Love, loss, and hope sum up the themes.” 4/5 – The Walleye
“Hide Your Light reaffirms Skydiggers as a national music treasure with an extensive and consistently high-quality discography matched by few peers. Long may they dig!” – FYI Music News
“Hide Your Light is an EP jammed full of great, powerful and moving songs.” – Spill Magazine
LET’S GET FRIENDSHIP RIGHT – October 2019
SPILL MAGAZINE
★★★★.5 out of five
“Andy Maize’s vocals have never sounded better” – Spill Magazine
“A magnificent album that deals with loss and love” – Spill Magazine
“Musically and lyrically, Skydiggers have produced a work of art” – Spill Magazine
http://spillmagazine.com/spill-album-review-skydiggers-lets-get-friendship-right/
Let’s Get Friendship Right, the 15th album by The Skydiggers, is a magnificent album that deals with loss and love. Although dealing with deep and heavy subjects, the end result is an album that is comforting and enlightening. The songs are full of melodies that get embedded into your mind, such as the incredible horn section and powerful arrangements on “Always And Forever”.
Once again, the band incorporates many different genres to create their own distinct style. Folk, rock, rhythm and blues, all rolled together to form the Skydiggers’ trademark. The use of synthesizers in the first track “Five Cold Canadians” enhances the song and elevates it to a whole different level.
Throughout the album, Andy Maize’s vocals have never sounded better.Along with Josh Finlayson, they create an incredible sound, but it is the lyrics that push the album to new heights. Side one reflectson the impact of losing a loved one, while side two speaks of the importance of love. Although the political “Ineligible” may stand out, it actually does fit in,as it explores the idea of an all-embracing community.
After nearly 30 years, Skydiggers not only continue to release brilliant music, but also demonstrate that they continue to grow as artists. Musically and lyrically, Skydiggers have produced a work of art. Although the album deals with some heavy subject matter, it is inviting to all its listeners.
— John Kendle
WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Josh Finlayson and Andy Maize of Skydiggers have always been unabashed fans of the Tragically Hip. Finlayson was one of Gord Downie’s best friends and played on almost all the late Hip singer’s solo projects, while Maize was a frequent collaborator and also co-founder of MapleMusic Recordings, the label that released Downie’s first two solo albums.
Downie’s tragic cancer diagnosis, his bittersweet final shows with the Hip and his death in 2017 undoubtedly had a pronounced effect on Maize, Finlayson and their music. Which is why much of Let’s Get Friendship Right feels like a musical farewell. The album’s title comes from the lyrics of It’s a Good Life if You Don’t Weaken and the cover art depicts a figure that is surely Downie strolling a Canadian landscape, guitar slung over his shoulder. Don’t be mistaken, though — as much as this record is an overt acknowledgment of Downie’s contributions, it’s also an expression of the love, grief, anger, despair and acceptance we all must experience in life’s final phase.
The moody, almost orchestral mid-tempo rock songs here are ultimately celebrations of what’s important in life — and songs such as the horn-infused, Motown-driven groove of Question of Love and a trancey, trip-hop-inspired reading of It Was a Very Good Year also hint at new, exciting directions for Skydiggers.
★★★★ out of five
https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/arts-and-life/entertainment/music/563713192.html
Great Dark Wonder
“A remarkable Skydiggers album that is like no other”
https://greatdarkwonder.com/skydiggers-lets-get-friendship-right/
WARMTH OF THE SUN
“The ninth studio album from Canadian folk-roots rockers Skydiggers is simultaneously urgent and laid-back, angry and understanding, intimate and abstract, raw and honed. It’s beautiful, complex, timeless stuff — and unmistakably Skydiggers”
– Exclaim! 9/10
“Skydiggers have returned with not only one of their best albums, but one of the best albums of the year. A crowning achievement in their already astounding career.”
– Spill Magazine 9/10
Five Questions With… Andy Maize of Skydiggers
By Jason Schneider
Skydiggers’ latest album, Here Without You: The Songs Of Gene Clark (Latent Recordings), seems at first glance like a project that’s just been waiting for someone to tackle. For Americana aficionados, Clark has always been an underappreciated enigma, but since his death in 1991, his music has continued to have a profound influence on succeeding generations of singer/songwriters.
As a founding member of The Byrds, it was Clark who first emerged as the band’s original voice, contributing his own equally top-notch material to balance their Bob Dylan covers. And upon his departure after co-writing arguably their greatest achievement, “Eight Miles High,” Clark went on to pioneer “country-rock” with the Gosdin Brothers and Doug Dillard, and later produce sporadic, but consistently moving solo albums such asWhite Light and No Other.
Although Clark came back into vogue after Robert Plant and Alison Krauss covered two of his songs on their Grammy-winning Raising Sand (and Kanye West sampled “You Showed Me” on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy), he has never received the constant outpouring of tributes that some of his more glamorous peers like Gram Parsons get.
Enter Skydiggers, whose original three-voice line-up was in some ways modeled after the Clark-era Byrds. Now 16 (more or less) albums into their 25-plus years together, principal members Andy Maize and Josh Finlayson have come full circle on Here Without You, a passionately executed eight-song survey of Clark’s finest moments, accentuated by their frequent collaborator Jessy Bell Smith on vocals.
The album is a treasure for Skydiggers fans, and for those who may only know Gene Clark’s work in passing, it provides a solid introduction to his deep catalogue of memorable songs.
What makes Gene Clark’s songs so timeless?
I’m not sure you can ever point to one thing that makes a song timeless. In the case of Gene Clark’s songs, I think that it’s a combination of his melodies and lyrics that have resonated with me.
His work has always been overshadowed by many of his peers. Why do you think that is?
From what I’ve read about him, Gene Clark seemed to have the ability to engage in a bit of self-sabotage—something that’s not unheard of in the world of rock ‘n roll and popular music in general. Whether it’s ego, addiction, poor choices in relationships or that old standby, personal and artistic insecurity and self-doubt, those of us who have been in the music business long enough all know people who had all the talent in the world but couldn’t seem to get out of their own way.
What has been the biggest change in your life (or within that band) over the past year?
I think over the past year I’ve realized just how grateful I am for all of the people in my life and for all of the opportunities that a life in music has given me.
Skydiggers are approaching 30 years as a band. What has kept your creative partnership together?
Respect. Friendship. Love. Curiosity.
If there is anything you’d like to change about the music industry, what would it be?
Less industry, more music!
Skydiggers
Review: Here Without You
By Kerry Doole
Published May 11, 2016
8/10
The full title of this album is significant, for it indicates that Here Without You isn’t strictly a Byrds tribute album. It’s more specific than that, as Skydiggers zero in on one of that pioneering band’s key songwriters: the rather undervalued Gene Clark.
To singer Andy Maize, “his songs struck a deeper chord with us,” and his group does them justice via these original and pleasing reinterpretations of his work. The record is quite sparse and minimal in sound, with the clear focus being on the voices of Maize and harmony singer Jessy Bell Smith. Long one of Canada’s most emotionally eloquent singers, Maize is in top form here, with that haunting delivery well suited to most of this material.
The general mood is a mellow one, but there’s a lively feel to “One in a Hundred,” boosted by period-appropriate tambourine. The group also gets more musically expansive on “So You Say You Lost Your Baby,” a tune that exudes a brooding, neo-psychedelic vibe. It takes a few listens to get used to the new version of vibrant Byrds rocker “Feel A Whole Lot Better,” now slowed right down and featuring multiple female backing vocals, but it’ll gradually seduce you, while another Byrds classic, “Eight Miles High” undergoes a similar radical reinvention.
Highlights here include the quiet shimmering beauty of “The World Turns All Around Her,” mostly sung as a duet, and closing cut “She Don’t Care About Time,” another gentle gem. (Latent)
By Calum Slingerland
Published Mar 21, 2016
Skydiggers Take On the Work of Gene Clark for ‘Here Without You’
Having celebrated their 25th anniversary as a group back in 2013, treasured Canadian outfit Skydiggers are set to look back at the work of another storied artist with a forthcoming full-length album. The group will reinterpret the work of Byrds songwriter Gene Clark on Here Without You – The Songs of Gene Clark , arriving this spring.
Recorded and produced by Michael Timmins (Cowboy Junkies), the album features Skydiggers’ takes on Clark’s work with the Byrds, as well as his lesser-known solo material, over eight tracks.
“It seems like we’ve been fans of the Byrds forever, so to say that we’ve just discovered Gene Clark’s songwriting contributions to the band makes it seem like he’s been hiding in plain sight all of these years,” the band wrote in a statement. “In this discovery we have made a connection to our roots; not just to the roots of folk rock and the Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, or Gene Clark in the New Christy Minstrels style of folk singing but back to the Appalachians and across the ocean to the songs of the Brits and the Scots.”
Guitarist Josh Finlayson continued: “It’s Gene’s sense of melody, his use of chords, his way with a lyric that we connected with so strongly. He never enjoyed the level of success or recognition he deserved during his lifetime, but his songs endure and it is a privilege to interpret his work.”
Here Without You is slated to arrive on May 13 through Latent Recordings. Read through the tracklist and watch a video for the band’s reinterpretation of Byrds classic “8 Miles High” below.
Here Without You – The Songs of Gene Clark :
1. 8 Miles High
2. Here Without You
3. One in a Hundred
4. Set You Free This Time
5. Feel a Whole Lot Better
6. The World Turns All Around Her
7. So You Say You Lost Your Baby
8. She Don’t Care About Time
2014-12-11
THE SKYDIGGERS
Angels (Latent)
The offering: The Toronto roots rockers have expanded their EP of the same name from a year ago into a full-length album. It’s more sombre than most Christmas albums, as its songs cover things like yearning for loved ones who aren’t with us anymore to spending the holidays in prison.
Classic chestnuts: You won’t find Jingle Bell Rock or I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus here. In their place, the band covers John Prine’s Christmas in Prison and Minuit, chrétiens (the French version of O Holy Night). (Singer Andy Maize admits to pulling a bit of a Ritchie Valens la La Bamba with Canada’s second official language.) It also includes the band’s own Where’s My Baby, Tonight? The highlight of the CD is the 20-year-old recording of Good King Wenceslas, which includes vocals from Peter Cash.
New jingles: The band’s primary songwriters, Maize and Josh Finlayson, contribute the soulful Remember Me. The band taps into longtime friends and songwriters — not to mention members of Parliament — Andrew Cash and Charlie Angus for Church Bells Ringing (Christmas in the City). ***
— Geoff Kirbyson
There’s an easy formula for making a holiday album. You need your O Holy Night churchy classic, your Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) modern rocker. Sprinkle with a couple of rarer gems (maybe Joni Mitchell’s River?), throw in an original if you like, and whammo!
But making a good Christmas album? Not so easy. (My fake wood floors are scattered with rejects.)
Thankfully, Toronto roots stalwarts Skydiggers have come up with a winning recipe:
1. Take little-known but first-class Christmas tunes from rock stars like the Pretenders (2000 Miles) and John Prine (Christmas In Prison), strum with delicate restraint, pull at our heartstrings with male-female vocal duets.
2. Take advantage of the one original tune, Church Bells Ringing (Christmas In The City), by making local references that make the listener feel special, then harmonize in a way that brings a single tear.
3. When you do cover a “traditional” Christmas tune, cover the heck out of it. Make it the best version of that song the listener has ever heard. Goodness, their version of Good King Wenceslas is pretty!
Top track: Church Bells Ringing (Christmas In The City)
The Skydiggers have been in the business a long time: the band’s debut release came out in 1990, the same year as Uncle Tupelo’s genre busting No Depression and not long after the Cowboy Junkie’s refreshing Trinity Sesssions. If Canadians invented Americana with The Band, the Skydiggers deserve credit for the roots revivable of the early 90s.
That the ‘Diggers are still together is a testament to the band’s talent, the respect they have amongst their fellow musicians and a dedicated cadre of fans who have sustained the legendary band throughout their career.
The band’s latest album, She Comes into the Room, collects those musicians and fans and revisits some their old songs. The She in the title refers to a who’s who of female vocal talent that’s joined the band for a collection of eight updated recordings.
What a collection it is, too: the varied voices fit well with the band, and the strong lyrical writing remains as fresh as it ever has been. The version of Northern Shore recorded with the Cowboy Junkies’ Margo Timmins found here is worth the price of admission alone: her distinctive voice takes a gorgeous song and spins it into something unforgettable. Ramblin’ On with Jessy Bell Smith is a worthy update to the original, and Ivy Mairi’s version of Feel You Closer feels both fresh and familiar. Frankly, there’s magic in seeing a band that’s been in the business this long put to record the collaborative moments that have been happening on stage for years. Buy this.
ALL OF OUR DREAMING: LVE 1988, 2000, 2012
This wonderful two-CD, one-DVD set from Canadian roots-rock band the Skydiggers is a thing of beauty. It captures the group in three different concerts, from very different eras. While the DVD is heavy on songs from last year’s amazing Northern Shore reocrd, the group squeezes in performances of its classic song “I Willl Give You Everything” and “A Penny More”. Of the 33 songs int he collection, only a handful are common between the three shows.
EXCLUSIVE! SKYDIGGER ANDY MAIZE REVEALS “THE LAST THING I’LL EVER WRITE …”
by cbforrest
If the Skydiggers were a movie, they would be fawned over at the Sundance Festival. If the Skydiggers were a book, they’d be a well-worn paperback written by some revered and reclusive ex-pat living in a small village in the south of France. If the Skydiggers were …
Well, you get the point: the Skydiggers are hip without trying to be hip because they simply do what they do for all the right reasons. As the iconic group celebrates its 25th anniversary with a cross-country tour and the seasonal release of four new offerings this year, lead singer Andy Maize took some time to discuss writing, the business of art, and the ebbs and flows across a quarter century of creation.
The Toronto-based musician says like most artists he has preferred to “keep moving forward” to the next word, the next line, the next song. It wasn’t until the band started sorting through old material for a retrospective project several years ago that Maize really stood back and took stock of the work with a fresh set of eyes.
“That was the first time in a long time that we had gone back and thought about the albums to that degree,” he says. “You know what the great thing is about time? All the stuff that really bothered you goes away and what you’re left with are the good memories. It was a nice exercise in letting go.”
Maize spends most of his hour-long interview praising others he has collaborated with – such as superbly talented songwriting partner and stalwart guitarist Josh Finlayson, original ‘digger Peter Cash, and about a dozen other players both current and former. While a true group effort in supplying material for each album took pressure off him as a songwriter over the years, he says he knows well the writer’s fear that each finished piece may be his last.
“Every time I write something I think, well that’s great. It’s great that I was able to do that. And it’s the last thing I’ll ever write,” he says with a laugh. “And then it comes up again.”
Words are important to Maize, especially “the order of words”, but so too is sound. He says the first few R.E.M. albums were a strong influence. The Skydiggers share much with that hip little outfit from Athens, Georgia, including early success on campus radio as well as reverence for beautiful harmonies.
“I’ve always loved counter melodies in songs. Like a kid back in elementary school singing rounds …”
If writers are a misunderstood bunch, sys Maize, it’s perhaps because sometimes people misinterpret long periods of quiet reflection. “They’ll think you’re doing nothing, but you actually need the time and space to clear out your head, to think or to daydream.”
Any artist who also wants to eat has to be concerned with the business end of the venture at some point. Maize says the landscape has changed for emerging artists compared to when his band built up a steady following show by show, saved pennies to record an EP, and then finally got a first full-length album. The advent of digital technology has turned every bedroom into a recording studio.
“Twenty-five years ago there were certain steps that I thought were well defined. If you did this it led to that. It was all in the service of building a career, establishing a fan base,” he says. “The digital revolution has democratized the process in a great way but it has also taken away the building blocks.”
Quality is certainly more important to Maize than quantity. His is a band whose album tracks you just don’t skip en route to one or two chart-toppers. Every song, every outing, every infrequent full-length album is an offering. Their music has matured and evolved through the addition of members with new instruments and talents (Michael Johnston on keys, Noel Webb on drums), deeper and more complex arrangements, and perhaps even new perspective provided by a long mid-career break.
“There was a time ten years ago when we weren’t really very active,” Maize says, adding several band members started families while some were busy starting up Maple Music. “We kept trying to make starts on new things and we weren’t very pleased with what we were doing. We sort of lost whatever it was that was moving us forward. And then we found it again.”
Maize deeply appreciates the contributions of every artist who has played with the Skydiggers over the years, musing that perhaps that is the reason why the band dropped its official ‘The’ somewhere along the way.
“We realize how fortunate we are to be part of a community. And so everybody is a Skydigger, past, present and future,” Maize says.
As Maize and company get set to cross the country they expect to play primarily to a core fan base that was in university and college in the late 1980s as well as some new fans – “we’re starting to see children of our original fans coming out to shows, which is pretty fantastic.”
Consider 2013 officially proclaimed ‘Year of Skydiggers’.
PRESS QUOTES
2012-09-06
“Northern Shore explores terrain that’s simultaneously familiar and bracingly fresh; it’s a gem.”
“Twenty years in the business can be hard, and a lot of bands after that long settle into a comfortable groove and start repeating themselves. Not so this band: the material from the new album stands strong next to time honoured classics.”
“An eclectic collection worth digging into.”
“After more than two decades, The Skydiggers continue to find ways to make fresh and vibrant music.”
“These guys have done everything right here. A resilient and mature collection of choice compositions.”
“This 15-song collection stands as the most adventurous and varied of the group’s 20-year plus career, capturing the essence of their sound. Northern Shore sees the group mapping new musical territory, but it feels like home.”
The Skydiggers: the name is a legend in the Canadian roots rock scene. With a history stretching back to the late 80s when they released their first eponymous album the ‘Diggers feats are many. They won a Juno for most promising artist, have changed record labels more than once (suffering through the loss of ownership of their own master tapes,) lost the primary songwriter from earlier albums (Peter Cash,) and remained a force. These guys have been through a lot, and the band is still standing.
The Skydiggers are well known and well regarded in their hometown of Toronto where they’ve played an annual packed pre-Christmas weekend gig at Horseshoe Tavern for more than 20 years now. It’s been more than three years since they’ve been out here to the west though, and that’s a long wait for one of the best live acts in Canada. The packed room at the Railway Club was a pretty clear indication that the band’s fans have remained loyal.
Lead singer Andy Maize’s trademark wit and sense of humour were on display as soon as the band took the stage. “Our purpose here is threefold” he announced, before elucidating reasons for the evenings show: to celebrate the release of the conservative Canadian press baron from his Florida prison cell, to fix the model train that traditionally runs on a suspended track at the Railway Club and–as if an afterthought–to celebrate the release of their new album Northern Shore.
Also, by the way, to mourn the death of the inventor of cheesie a couple of days earlier. Apparently the purpose was four-fold.
For any band with a 20 year history and a dedicated set of fans the set-list can be a challenge: do you choose the fan favourites from long ago, or feature material from the new record? The Skydiggers did a nice job of balancing both opening with new material from Northern Shore before playing Horseshoe Bay (where the local ferry terminal is) and Feel You Closer, one of the band’s more popular early numbers.
Normally an all male group the band is touring with Jessie Bell Smith, whose backing vocals added a nice touch to older material. Smith shone particularly brightly when she soloed on a cover of Deep Water, which was followed by the band’s first major hit I Will Give You Everything. At this point, Maize was obviously enjoying himself tremendously on stage and the band played one more song before taking a break.
After a fifteen minute break spent at the briskly trafficked “ye olde souvenir shoppe” selling CDs the band took the stage again and opened their second set with Pull Me Closer which, for my money, ranks among not just the band’s best material but as a classic example of how to build a song.
“Richard, this is your request,” Maize announced next. Richard, as it turns out, is Maize’s father-in-law and I happened to be standing next to him when the opening notes of the male/female duet Dear Henry came from the stage. Originally performed by Sarah Harmer the tune is a tough one live: Maize has sung both parts on occasion, but the pairing of his voice with Jessie Bell Smith’s was beautiful and at least one father-in-law was standing there beaming. Good choice Richard: it’s a great tune.
The second set turned out to be heavy in the history department with the band’s biggest hit A Penny More making for one of those incredible concert moments that you never forget. While Daniel Lapp had been accompanying the band on fiddle for most of this night, he picked up a trumpet for this tune and the plaintive sound added a beautiful touch. As the band entered the final refrain of the chorus’s “Higher, Higher, I’ll take you where you want to go” the entirecrowd joined in unison with the band.
A hard act to follow that one, but they did with Slow Burning Fire. Richard–the father-in-law–leaned over to me at this point and told me it was his favourite Skydiggers song and who am I to argue? As the title implies it starts slow and builds to a crescendo and does it about as well as you can imagine.
Twenty years in the business can be hard, and a lot of bands after that long settle into a comfortable groove and start repeating themselves. Not so this band: the material from the new album (and the last, City of Sirens) stands strong next to time honoured classics. Sounding as fresh as they did when I first started listening to them in high school, it was a pitch-perfect night with a favourite band.
One of these days I’m going to get back to Toronto for those annual Christmas gigs again: they’re warm, intimate beautiful performances and if you ever have the fortune to be in that city the weekend before Christmas make sure you go. If not, keep your fingers crossed for a visit from the band to your town. You won’t be disappointed.
http://www.nodepression.com/profiles/blogs/the-skydiggers-at-the-railway-club-may-5-vancouver-bc
ALBUM REVIEW
Skydiggers – Northern Shore
(Latent) BY SARAH GREENE
The eighth album from local roots rockers Skydiggers is an ambitious, almost hour-long effort that was recorded over a few sessions at guitarist Josh Finlayson’s Man Cave, Blue Rodeo’s Woodshed and the Tragically Hip’s Bathouse studio. There’s a lot of variety, from the sparse slow build of accordion-drenched opener Waves to the big alt-pop groove of Fire Engine (Red Explosion) and the Byrdsy Andrew Cash cover You’ve Been Gone So Long.
The band’s adventurous use of sampling and beats pays off when supporting Andy Maize’s vocal on The Herd, but the alt-folk arrangements tend to get melodramatic on quieter songs like I’ll Be There and the tremolo-piano-treated title track. They save some of the best for near-last: a rollicking cover of Mickey Newbury’s Why You Been Gone So Long and pretty Without Me, featuring Guelph’s Jessy Bell Smith.
Top track: You’ll Come Around
We last heard from Toronto, ON roots-rock veterans Skydiggers with their 2009 album, The Truth About Us. That was a career retrospective, while this superb new outing (their eighth studio album) confirms that their creative juices are still flowing freely. A strength of the band is that they have created a signature sound that still manages to be diverse and dynamic. “Fire Engine (Red Explosion)” has an edge, while piano-fuelled ballads like “Northern Shore” and “Wake Up Little Darlin'” effectively showcase Andy Maize’s distinctive and emotionally expressive vocal style. There are nods to the past also, with former founder member Peter Cash’s spirited guest turn on “Barely Made It Through” and the inclusion of two songs written by another kindred spirit, Andrew Cash. Northern Shore also reaffirms the impressive evolution of Josh Finlayson as a songwriter. Two album highlights, “Deep Water (31 Mile Lake)” and “Falling With The Stars,” are Finlayson compositions (co-writes with, respectively, Tom Wilson and Darryl Burgess). Northern Shore explores terrain that’s simultaneously familiar and bracingly fresh; it’s a gem.
(Latent)
Skydiggers Stay Timeless with ‘Northern Shore’
Toronto-based roots rock veterans Skydiggers release their eighth studio album, Northern Shore today (April 17). The record comes out via Latent Recordings, the label set up by Cowboy Junkies main man Michael Timmins, while some of its tracks were recorded at the Woodshed, Blue Rodeo’s studio, and the Tragically Hip’s Bathouse recording facility.
This confirms the peer respect Skydiggers have long enjoyed within the Canadian music scene, and that is something they don’t take for granted.
“One of the themes we went into the recording with was the theme of community,” singer-songwriter Andy Maize tells Exclaim! “At this stage of our lives, we’ve found ourselves as part of a community we are very grateful for. Skydiggers is almost like a collective. People come and go, and there is material we draw from with all these people, but there’s a core that moves the projects ahead.”
The material on Northern Shore includes two songs — “Wake Up Little Darling” and “You’ve Been Gone So Long” — written by songsmith-turned-MP Andrew Cash. His brother, Peter Cash, was a founding member of Skydiggers, and he returns to the fold with a guest performance on “Barely Made It Through.”
Now well into the third decade of their career, Skydiggers continue to revisit their prolific past. Their previous record, 2009’s The Truth About Us, was a career retrospective, while a deluxe four-disc, 45-song edition of Northern Shore that is about to be released online includes both new (ten extra songs recorded during the Northern Shore sessions) and older material.
“We’ve been archiving a lot of our old multi-track recordings,” Maize explains. “They had been sitting in basements and we were worried they were starting to decompose. We have a friend who can bake the tapes and bounce them onto the digital format so we can have them archived. We realized that over the years we have a lot of unreleased songs, dating back to the very first demos we did at Grant Avenue in 1988 with Michael Phillip Wojewoda.”
Material from these sessions is included on Northern Shore’s deluxe set, while one of its discs comprises material recorded in early 1996, just before Peter Cash left the group.
“We recorded demos at Chemical Sound with Darryl Smith, but that record was never released,” says Maize. “Some of the songs ended up on the Cash Brothers record, but these are the original versions. Listening to tracks from 1988 and 1996 is a really interesting way to see how the band evolved and progressed.”
Maize is proud of the fact that this archival material doesn’t sound dated. “Josh [Finlayson, Skydiggers guitarist/songwriter] recently said that our goal is to make music that’s timeless. It is not identified in time by the production or any gimmicks.”
As previously reported, Skydiggers will be taking Northern Shore on a Canadian tour this spring.
http://exclaim.ca/News/skydiggers_stay_timeless_with_northern_shore
With a career that stretches way back into the 1980s, Toronto’s Skydiggers put out a career-spanning compilation back in 2009. That retrospective collection doesn’t mean the band are done releasing new material, however, and on April 17 they will drop Northern Shore through Latent Recordings. Before the album officially arrives, you can preview the whole thing at Exclaim.ca.
According to a press release, this 15-song collection is “the most adventurous and varied of the group’s 20-year-plus career.” This means everything from simple acoustic tracks to more eclectic, studio-treated tracks.
Some of these were built using samples at home, while others were laid down during sessions at Blue Rodeo’s Woodshed Studio in Toronto and the Tragically Hip’s Bathouse Recording Studio in Kingston, ON. Saam Hashemi served as producer.
Skydiggers’ diverse approach resulted in a surprisingly cohesive collection of songs that includes covers of Andrew Cash and Mickey Newbury. Singer Andy Maize said in a press release, “The desire was there to definitely make another recording, but there wasn’t really a plan. We revisited older material that we had never gotten around to releasing, re-recorded older material that we’ve been playing in a new way with the current line-up of the band, and then came up with all this new material.”
Skydiggers Announce Canadian Tour, Unveil New ‘Northern Shore’ Song
Last month, Toronto roots rock outfit Skydiggers announced their eighth album Northern Shore, and shortly after the collection’s April 17 street date, the Canadian combo will take their new tunes on a cross-country trek.
The group kick off the trip with a couple of Ontario dates, starting with a performance in Burnstown on April 26, but the Skydiggers quickly head out all the way out to the West Coast for a two-night stand at Vancouver’s Railway Club on May 2 and 3. From there, they’ll travel from the Prairies out to the Maritimes before wrapping things up at Wakefield, QC’s Black Sheep Inn on June 30. You can see the detailed schedule down below.
Skydiggers have also just dropped the first teaser track forNorthern Shore, the low-key sea shanty “Waves.” You can stream the number, which features guest musician Jaro Czerwinec on accordion, down below. A press release points to other songs fans can look forward to, including the “propulsive mechanized beat” and xylophone samples of “The Herd” and a honky-tonk cover of Mickey Newbury’s “Why You Been Gone So Long.”
As previously reported, Northern Shore arrives through Latent Recordings.
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Hearing these 22 tracks, it’s actually bittersweet to think of how much the Skydiggers were taken for granted during their prime years in the ’90s. Seeing them play on a regular basis was almost automatic, especially if you lived in southern Ontario, and they never disappointed. In some ways, the combination of unique personalities laid the foundation for longevity: Andy Maize’s manic joyfulness perfectly complemented the stoic cool of Peter Cash, while Josh Finlayson drove the rhythm like some lumber camp Keith Richards and Ronny von Johnny was, well, Ronny von Johnny. But on top of it all were instantly memorable songs that turned a new leaf on Canada’s folk and country music traditions. That energy remains undiminished on The Truth About Us, from the barebones vigour of the self-titled debut to the slick twang (and emergence of the Cash Brothers) on Road Radio. What this album thankfully reminds us of is that the band didn’t bow out after that. Later material like “Where Is My Baby Tonight,” “Losing Altitude” and the title track certainly deserve their places. The only gripe is that the original tapes from Restless and Just Over This Mountain seem to be lost forever, and newly recorded versions of “A Penny More” and “Pull Me Down” take some getting used to. Still, The Truth About Us offers a lasting tribute to one of Canada’s great bands. (Pheromone)
Skydiggers still looking to future even after releasing 20-year retrospective
TORONTO — Even on the heels of releasing a 20-year retrospective, the Skydiggers’ Josh Finlayson has a hard time describing the band’s legacy.
“That’s a good question, (but) it’s probably not one for me to answer,” Finlayson said in a telephone interview from his home in Toronto. “I’ve never been a big one to look back and pat myself on the back and say, ‘You’re a heck of a guy.”‘
His peers don’t seem to have the same problem when discussing the Toronto roots rock band.
“We’ve always loved their music,” Alan Anton, bassist for the Cowboy Junkies, said in a telephone interview. “They’ve kind of nailed this area of music that I don’t think anybody else in Canada has come close to.
“I think they’re one of the most underrated bands in Canada too.”
In the liner notes to the Skydiggers’ “The Truth About Us: A Twenty Year Retrospective,” other artists were equally effusive in their praise.
“The Skydiggers are a treasure,” wrote Tragically Hip frontman Gord Downie.
Added collaborator Sarah Harmer: “The Skydiggers are part of the interlocking brick of sound and style that is the foundation of Canada’s independent musical landscape.”
All the praise is a bit disarming for the modest Finlayson. He says he’s only recently come to realize just how fervent a cult following the Skydiggers have cultivated.
“I think one thing that I’ve come to appreciate is that a lot of people have as much ownership of the band as we do,” he said. “I don’t want to say that we took it for granted, but I think we took it for granted to an extent, you know?
“Our casualness about the band was often sort of, you know, I think maybe misinterpreted.”
“The Truth About Us” features 22 album tracks, previously unreleased versions, live recordings and new re-interpretations of classic songs – made necessary due to the ongoing red tape surrounding their earlier and most popular albums, which were released on the now-defunct FRE Records.
Finlayson said the band tried to secure the rights to the original recordings – which include their popular 1993 sophomore album “Restless” – but couldn’t, so they had to revisit the songs. In doing so, he said they gained perspective on what made the tunes special in the first place.
“We discovered the old stuff and were really surprised at how it sort of held up,” he said.
Along the way, Finlayson said the band also unearthed two or three albums worth of “pretty great” unreleased material – “I mean, by our standards, not necessarily by anyone else’s,” he notes – that he hopes might someday see the light of day.
Finlayson’s enthusiasm for the Skydiggers may provide a welcome relief for fans, especially considering the group seemed on the brink of disbanding earlier this decade.
In the early part of 2000, the band took a hiatus from playing. Finlayson said that after 12 years of non-stop touring, the band saw its popularity wane slightly. He worried that they might have reached a plateau.
“Sometimes life has a way of imposing itself on you,” he said of the break. “We had reached a point in our playing, in our career, where you know, we just … we didn’t know how to make it evolve from there.”
In 2002 the band launched MapleMusic, a website started with the aim of promoting and selling Canadian music. Finlayson also kept busy by producing other records, and the band played shows here and there.
But ultimately, they didn’t really want to stay away from the band for long.
Finlayson says the process of putting the retrospective together has helped him appreciate what the group has accomplished.
“Perhaps to a fault I’ve always felt like moving ahead and forging ahead is the thing to do,” he said. “So I think this was a really good process for me.
“For some people, (our music) has become part of the soundtrack to their lives and that’s like the biggest compliment you could ever wish for.”
Now, armed with new management and plans to release more new material – their last record, “City of Sirens,” came out last year – Finlayson allows himself a moment to boast of the band’s potential.
“It’s an exciting time to be a part of this band,” he said. “I feel super confident about going anywhere and representing the band in any situation.”
TORONTO — Even on the heels of releasing a 20-year retrospective, the Skydiggers’ Josh Finlayson has a hard time describing the band’s legacy.
“That’s a good question, (but) it’s probably not one for me to answer,” Finlayson said in a telephone interview from his home in Toronto. “I’ve never been a big one to look back and pat myself on the back and say, ‘You’re a heck of a guy.”‘
His peers don’t seem to have the same problem when discussing the Toronto roots rock band.
“We’ve always loved their music,” Alan Anton, bassist for the Cowboy Junkies, said in a telephone interview. “They’ve kind of nailed this area of music that I don’t think anybody else in Canada has come close to.
“I think they’re one of the most underrated bands in Canada too.”
In the liner notes to the Skydiggers’ “The Truth About Us: A Twenty Year Retrospective,” other artists were equally effusive in their praise.
“The Skydiggers are a treasure,” wrote Tragically Hip frontman Gord Downie.
Added collaborator Sarah Harmer: “The Skydiggers are part of the interlocking brick of sound and style that is the foundation of Canada’s independent musical landscape.”
All the praise is a bit disarming for the modest Finlayson. He says he’s only recently come to realize just how fervent a cult following the Skydiggers have cultivated.
“I think one thing that I’ve come to appreciate is that a lot of people have as much ownership of the band as we do,” he said. “I don’t want to say that we took it for granted, but I think we took it for granted to an extent, you know?
“Our casualness about the band was often sort of, you know, I think maybe misinterpreted.”
“The Truth About Us” features 22 album tracks, previously unreleased versions, live recordings and new re-interpretations of classic songs – made necessary due to the ongoing red tape surrounding their earlier and most popular albums, which were released on the now-defunct FRE Records.
Finlayson said the band tried to secure the rights to the original recordings – which include their popular 1993 sophomore album “Restless” – but couldn’t, so they had to revisit the songs. In doing so, he said they gained perspective on what made the tunes special in the first place.
“We discovered the old stuff and were really surprised at how it sort of held up,” he said.
Along the way, Finlayson said the band also unearthed two or three albums worth of “pretty great” unreleased material – “I mean, by our standards, not necessarily by anyone else’s,” he notes – that he hopes might someday see the light of day.
Finlayson’s enthusiasm for the Skydiggers may provide a welcome relief for fans, especially considering the group seemed on the brink of disbanding earlier this decade.
In the early part of 2000, the band took a hiatus from playing. Finlayson said that after 12 years of non-stop touring, the band saw its popularity wane slightly. He worried that they might have reached a plateau.
“Sometimes life has a way of imposing itself on you,” he said of the break. “We had reached a point in our playing, in our career, where you know, we just … we didn’t know how to make it evolve from there.”
In 2002 the band launched MapleMusic, a website started with the aim of promoting and selling Canadian music. Finlayson also kept busy by producing other records, and the band played shows here and there.
But ultimately, they didn’t really want to stay away from the band for long.
Finlayson says the process of putting the retrospective together has helped him appreciate what the group has accomplished.
“Perhaps to a fault I’ve always felt like moving ahead and forging ahead is the thing to do,” he said. “So I think this was a really good process for me.
“For some people, (our music) has become part of the soundtrack to their lives and that’s like the biggest compliment you could ever wish for.”
Now, armed with new management and plans to release more new material – their last record, “City of Sirens,” came out last year – Finlayson allows himself a moment to boast of the band’s potential.
“It’s an exciting time to be a part of this band,” he said. “I feel super confident about going anywhere and representing the band in any situation.”
NO DEPRESSION
2009-05-20
By Paul Cantin
One day, if someone with perfect penmanship and a great memory for details takes up music historian Pete Frame’s Rock Family Trees project and plots the development of the Canadian roots rock community, they may discover that many — if not all — branches and roots at some point interconnect with the Skydiggers.
Other bands with links to that broadly-defined scene (Blue Rodeo, Sarah Harmer, Kathleen Edwards, The Tragically Hip, Cowboy Junkies) have gone on to greater recognition, but for 20 years, the Skydiggers have quietly built a songbook that rivals those peers in every category, except possibly the recognition part.
Why aren’t the Skydiggers better known? Here’s some theories. Although the three core members have remained in place for 20 years — singer Andy Maize, bassist Ron Macey, guitarist Josh Finlayson — there has been a bit of a revolving door in the band’s human resources department. And likewise, their label affiliations have been in flux, which has made some key parts of their catalog unavailable for periods of time. They’ve never been ones to let family commitments take a continued back seat to professional obligations, so the marathon intercontinental tours that typically yield a broader international reputation have not consistently been part of their standard operation. More importantly, the Skydiggers have always demonstrated a kind of amiable obstinance about how they conduct themselves and an integrity about evading opportunities that involve some kind of compromise. Whatever that might mean for the group’s fortunes, it hasn’t changed the quality of their work.
Even as the world found other distractions, the Skydiggers have solidified an enviable Canadian following and created a stellar body of music that finally gets the compilation it always deserved on The Truth About Us: A 20 Year Retrospective (available from MapleMusic.com May 26).
The nicely-appointed set includes 22 tracks taken from across the Skydiggers’ 11 album discography, with a couple of tracks present in alternate or re-recorded form. There’s also their superlative version of “Good King Wenceslas,” originally issued on a promo cassingle back in the day and now a seasonal favorite at the band’s annual string of holiday shows at Toronto’s Horseshoe Tavern.
There’s also a booklet featuring testimonials by Harmer, Blue Rodeo’s Jim Cuddy, The Tragically Hip’s Gord Downie and — full disclosure — an essay by me. To sweeten the deal, there’s a DVD included with a beautifully-shot performance by the band’s current lineup, taken at Toronto’s Dakota Tavern and filmed for CMT Canada’s The Dakota Sessions program.
This is a pent-up body of work that is long overdue for wider recognition. Dig in.
Michael Garth
Reaching the 20-year plateau as a band, Toronto’s Skydiggers put forth a polished effort with the group’s seventh studio album. Under a slightly adjusted line up, the band delivers its unique brand of adult contemporary folk-rock that Canadians have become familiar with over the years. Comparisons to Tom Petty are justly made by way of singer Andy Maize’s nasal yet compelling vocals, though it’s the band’s sound—which now includes a Hammond organ—that distances it from the mainstream. The upbeat tracks are the best ones, and the album could have benefited from a greater number of them, as the slower ballads make for a slow-sounding album. Though things have changed since “What Do You See?” was a hit amidst the grunge/alternative era, City of Sirens proves that the Skydiggers will continue to provide the Canadian soundscape with fresh, original songwriting. V
City of Sirens’ most impressive quality is the noticeable shift away from guitar-based folk rock to almost symphonic art-rock arrangements, with the band’s signature harmonies embedded into the textures and voicing of the keyboard parts. The songs are majestically melodic and richly structured, with lyrics that convey a kind of weary, wary optimism.
– Greg Quill
After nearly two decades together, it’s hard to expect anything groundbreaking from the Skydiggers. What the band offers, though, is consistently strong adult contemporary folk music that’s remained rich and complex after all these years. Their new disc, City Of Sirens, is no exception.
Opening track Hello Beautiful Life is for the most part a soft, piano-driven number with passionate choruses that shows just how excited the band is to still be making music 17 years after releasing their first disc.
While it’s not their best work (Desmond’s Hip City still holds that title), tracks like Hasty Mart – a song about working at the Ontario-based convenience store – show the band clearly still have a long career ahead of them.
– Bryan Borzykowski
As with Canadian rock icons the Tragically Hip, the Rheostatics and Blue Rodeo, it’s easy to take the Skydiggers for granted. In a career spanning more than two decades, the core trio of singer Andy Maize, guitarist Josh Finlayson and bassist Ron Macey have embarked on many, many cross-country tours and found time to provide music for the hockey film The Rhino Brothers.
Longtime fans of the Skydiggers won’t find many surprises on City of Sirens, the band’s seventh studio album. The main songwriters, Maize and Finlayson, dish up twelve aurally pleasing, hummable acoustic roots tracks. The instrumentation is sparse, and the addition of pianist and organist Michael Johnson adds a new but subtle layer to the songs. Johnson wisely opts for a soft touch, blending in with the acoustic guitar and fitting in nicely with the Skydiggers’ trademark sound. Their two most upbeat tracks, One Last Chance and Where’s My Baby, Tonight?, are the best of twelve strong songs.
Like the band itself, City of Sirens is consistent, classy and timeless. It’s seven for seven for the Skydiggers, who have again whipped up an album that is essential listening for summer road trips.
– Jocelyn Chan
Still one of Canada ‘ s most reliably great live bands, Toronto, ON’s Skydiggers have written an excellent new record that speaks to their gift for emotionally rich and complex songs. Principal songwriters Andy Maize and Josh Finlayson may not always get the credit but they know how to get to the heart of a matter, rendering songs flush with hard love, bewildered anger and mostly hope with a rare, sincere purity. There’s no fear of ridicule or reprisal in “Hello, Beautiful Life”, which is about as earnest as a ballad can be. Ripe with teasing humour, “One Last Chance” belts forward with affection, as newbies Noel Webb and Michael Johnston prove welcome additions to the Skydiggers sound. If Tom Petty lurks within the title track, the rest of the Traveling Wilburys pop by on “Where’s My Baby Tonight?” and the irreverent “Hasty Mart.” There are politics floating there and throughout the Dylan-esque “Everybody Wants” but it’s all done undercover, as the Skydiggers add a spry chapter to their enviable legacy. (Latent)
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Belle Starr 
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