Saltwater Roses
Move Over Twice
This is a fluid quintet of experienced musicians who have mastered the fine art of constructing and delivering a brisk, punchy and pliant acoustic/electric sound that references enduring artists such as Graham Parker,Beatles, Van Morrison and John Hiatt.
Led by vocalist/writer and guitarist Floyd Anderson,this a fluid quintet of experienced musicians who have mastered the fine art of constructing and delivering a brisk, punchy and pliant acoustic/electric sound that references enduring artists such as Graham Parker and John Hiatt without sounding slavishly derivative. The rest of the band--Tom Loane on bass, Bob Mahar on keyboards, Don Macdonald on drums and Steve Brown on lead guitar--play with a responsive, organic feel that easily pre-dates synthesizers and drum machines.
The result is remarkably crisp and direct, exactly the kind of music that you'd expect to come out of your AM radio in the early seventies when the likes of Van Morrison, Janis Joplin and Kris Kristofferson could somehow co-exist on the public airwaves. Anderson's marvelous voice consistently sounds youthful and joyous, and Brown's snappy guitar leads crackle and spit with a tart energy.
This is a band that sounds like they've just discovered the secret of playing together, more than ten years on down the line. They've got an ensemble spit-and-polish that puts most of Halifax's vaunted indie scene to shame. Saltwater Roses are also a group that couldn't care a whit about attitude or image. Consequently, their new album--entitled Move Over Twice after a line from the tune One After 909 on the Beatles' sad swansong Let It Be Album--sounds timelessly contemporary.
While the band touches on darker material on a couple of tunes on Move Over Twice--Daddy's Gone and the album's opening song It Could Eat You Up--most of the disc's tone is crisply optimistic. There's even some flashes of self-referential humour in the selection I Just Want to Break Even, a song that reveals the group's true intentions in releasing this new CD. Its the common complaint of many a modern-day musician.
With a honking horn section filling out a handful of songs on Move Over Twice, and a heavily echoed rock-a-billy selection in C'Mon Sherry, the album reveals Saltwater Roses as a band that puts a premium on having fun.
The whole thing started on the marshes of Tantramar in 1981 as the Beatless , doing note for note renditions of nearly all ( even the obscure) Fab Four tunes.
Floyd won first place in Music West Songwriting Contest (national) and got a free trip to Vancouver to do a songwriting workshop with Murray McLachlan, Eddie Schwarz and Thomas Dolby. Bob and Floyd came third as well with "Day of Wonder".
Two of the tunes on Move Over Twice were produced and recorded completely at Laurence Currie (Sloan producer) 1996 (Baby Ruthe and You Are Who You Are).
Rock: Pub Rock