Sunday, January 24, 2010

Crowdis Bridge, New Sound from Nova Scotia



Thursday afternoon January 21, 2010 Rich Terfry came on the radio for his usual afternoon gig that starts at 3:30 PM in Toronto on CBC Radio 2 Drive.

I was coaxed out of a nap by a song that was creating beautiful, clear images in my dreams. In a half sleep I was aware of sweet rhymes that went where expected, accompanied by an original reel on mandolin, guitar and acoustic bass.

The song is "Wasting Days" and the band is Crowdis Bridge from Cape Breton Nova Scotia.

Here's the refrain:

There's a cold breeze that rips the leaves from the trees
Still the autumns' hard to please though the summers on it's knees
But then the warm spring air will make the winters heart to care
For he knows he'd despair if he couldn't feel her there

"Wasting Days" weaves souls and seasons in metaphor while switching from first person then to third person narrative; which makes the song sound like a conversation one has with one's self in a dark time of self reflection - in the process of mending a broken heart. Yet the piece is sprinkled with optimism and understanding. Lyricist Ben Furey writes with Jason Rudderham, and Andrew Fedora.

This is the second time Rich Terfry has cast a spell on me with a musical selection. The last time was in 2009 with Justin Townes Earls' Replacements cover "Can't Hardly Wait", which Terfry was playing in rotation at the time.

CBC Radio 3 has a page for the band which offers four great songs. The band has a MySpace page up, and both feature the same four songs. CBC has a cleaner site than MySpace (which crashes my Compaq 1998 windows 2000 Pro). The great "Wasting Days" is accompanied by a catchy little number called "I Dare You" (to make less sense) that I've picked as a second 'hit' - whatever that means these days.

The Cape Breton Post says in a January 2009 review that band has a seven song EP out, but I haven't been able to find it anywhere on the web. The groups great music which is released independently isn't making any waves in broadcast media outside of CBC, but I think Rich Terfry is trying to change that, and I'm going to do my best to help.


Crowdis Bridge is on Southside River Denys Road about a mile from Bras d'Or Lake in Inverness County Nova Scotia.

From Crowdis Bridges' facebook info page:

HAVE BANJO, WILL TRAVEL
Crowdis Bridge at:

Jan. 30th, 2010
10:30pm - 2:00am
Governor's Pub
Sydney, Nova Scotia

March 4th, 2010
ECMA Cape Breton Night
Smooth Herman's
Sydney, NS
10:00pm - 10:30pm

March 7th, 2010
ECMA Discovery Stage
Capri Club
Sydney, NS
2:40pm - ...


Image of Rich Terfry courtesy of CBC Radio 2.
Image of the Crowdis Bridge courtesy of WonkyEye Blog.



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