Geoff Arsenault – Hired Hand
Self-release
www.geoffarsenault.ca
12 songs – 47 minutes
Just occasionally, out of nowhere, an album will hit you unexpectedly, taking you places you either haven’t been before or which are half-forgotten from a lifetime ago, lifting your spirits and touching your soul. Geoff Arsenault’s Hired Hand is one such release. Hired Hand is Arsenault’s third solo album, following 2006’s This Ain’t No Fiction and 2011’s Voodoo Baby Rattle, but this reviewer for one hopes that we don’t have to wait 14 years for his next effort.
Arsenault is a drummer, percussionist and singer/songwriter based in the East of Canada, but after listening to Hired Hand, one might quite reasonably suspect he’s actually from Louisiana. The album reeks of a dark, dank swamp where you can cut the humidity with a knife whilst being eaten alive by mosquitoes. There are echoes of the likes of JJ Cale and Tony Joe White and maybe even a nod towards Tom Waits in the nonchalantly relaxed-yet-irresistible grooves that permeate the album like wood smoke.
All 12 songs were written by Arsenault, who also provides drums, percussion, vocals and acoustic guitars. A number of superb musicians provide support on Hired Hand, including Joey Landreth on slide guitar, Kevin Breit and Colin Linden on electric guitar, Zev Katz, Tom Easley and Mike Farrington on bass, Glenn Patscha on B3 organ and Wurlitzer piano, Ray Bonneville on harmonica, David Mansfield and George Sluppick on tambourines. Matt Anderson, Chris Kirby and Amy Helm provide backing vocals.
The songs themselves are beautifully structured exercises in minimalism and restraint. There are no overblown or overlong solos on display, no complex chordal structures or intricate chord structures. It’s all about the groove and the feeling. And, as the legendary Albert Collins once sagely advised: “Simple music is the hardest music to play and blues is simple music”. The music on Hired Hand is probably more accurately described as swampy, roots music, but the blues permeates every note on the album. And, whilst the song structures may be relatively straightforward, it takes serious talent and hard work to master the nuances and emotional depth of this music. In places, it is striking how minimal instrumentation can make the use of space a material contributing factor. On the title track, for example, acoustic guitar, acoustic bass, percussion and a weeping electric slide guitar combine to create a vast musical vista.
The album was produced by Patscha and engineered by John D.S. Adams at Stonehouse Sound, Mahone Bay, NS, with mastering by John McLaggan at Parachute Mastering, all of whom deserve credit for capturing such compelling performances.
Hired Hand is not pure blues, but blues is everywhere on the album. It is also a sublime release.
