Third time is truly charming
Wakefield’s Fiftymen have come up with a hot new album at last,
If you’re a fan of the semi-legendary Ottawa country-rock outfit Fiftymen, you’ve probably been hearing rumours of a third album for years. It’s been more than a decade since the beloved bar band evolved into a top-notch recording act, starting with the 2002 release of After Darkfall, followed by 2006’s Sums + Balances.
With a handful of shows each year and a slow but steady stream of new songs creeping into the set, they’ve not exactly been dormant for the last eight years. It seems there was no particular hurry to finish up the tunes and get them recorded.
Despite the heel dragging, the mythical third Fiftymen album has finally arrived. Recorded at Dave Draves’ Little Bullhorn studio, the new disc is a self-titled stew of hurtin’ country and barnburning rock seasoned with the primal rasp of Jeff Hardill’s deep voice. It’s an excellent album, sounding almost like Johnny Cash if he was backed by the Sadies. The band plays the Black Sheep Inn Nov. 30 in a sold-out show with Slo’ Tom and the Handsome Devils.
During a recent interview with Hardill and guitarist Mark Michaud at their old stomping ground, the Manx Pub, we raised a pint to the new album (and the mystery girl on the cover). My first question was one that Fiftymen fans have been asking for ages: Why the delay?
“Life got in the way for everybody,” says Hardill. “There are five new houses, five new jobs, three new kids. Everybody’s living rich, full lives and this band is just one aspect of that, I guess.”
In addition to the constant nagging of fans, they got a kick in the pants from a well-connected former Ottawan, Nadine Gelineau, CEO of the New York City-based music-marketing firm, MuseBox Entertainment. On one of her trips back to Ottawa, she saw Fiftymen wow a club crowd and took them under her wing, urging them to record. Her company is helping spread the word on Fiftymen and their new record through social media.
The new level of interest is a little surprising for the band members, who have no intention of cramming themselves into a van and hitting the road for six months, although they do plan to venture to places like Peterborough, Montreal and Burnstown, and hope to ride the festival circuit next summer.
“None of us can really tour. We have jobs,” notes Michaud, 40, who co-owns the Wakefield pub, Kaffe 1870, with Hardill, who’s 47. For them, the notion that social media can replace touring is something of a revelation.
“We were afraid we wouldn’t be able to put as much into it, but that seems to be okay now,” Michaud says. “It’s nice to know we don’t have to do a bunch of shows a year. With Nadine helping us, it raises the profile of the band and lets people know who we are.”
Fiftymen was formed when Michaud, a rock guitarist, convinced Hardill, a bartender who had never sung with a band, that he had the perfect voice for country music. They decided to put a band together with their friends, guitarist Todd Gibbon, bassist Michael Houston Hanlan and drummer Jake Bryce. Fiddle- and banjo-player Keith Snider joined a few years later.
Both Hardill and Michaud sound amazed that it’s still going strong.
“If you had asked me 14 years ago when we started this band if we’d be extant in 2013, I would have laughed out loud,” says Hardill.
“We never thought anyone would come and see us play,” adds Michaud. “Jeff had never been in a band before but had tons of friends around town, and the rest of us all played in rock bands so whenever we said we were going to do a country-type band, they showed up to see how funny it was going to be.”
“They came to watch the train wreck,” deadpans Hardill.
“It was kind our party days, too,” continues Michaud. “It was a party in the crowd, a party on stage. We were having fun, and they were having fun and more and more people started showing up.”
Eventually the band decided to focus on the music instead of the drinking, and got more serious about writing and rehearsing. “I remember when that happened,” says Hardill. “It wasn’t quite a sit-down meeting but it was a mutual epiphany.
“We realized we actually have to deliver.”