SIREN’S SONG
Kacy & Clayton’s album reflects their familiar, hypnotizing style, writes
When Kacy & Clayton were touring their last album Strange Country, they got tired of playing acoustic instruments in noisy venues.
It’s not the first time the duo of vocalist/violinist Kacy Anderson and guitarist Clayton Linthicum have played with a band, but it’s a setup they wanted reflected on a recording.
“I started playing electric and Kacy started playing acoustic guitar in the band. Then we brought in Mike Silverman on drums and Shuyler Jansen on bass. That’s how we’ve been playing live for the last couple years so we wanted to make an album with that setup,” Linthicum said.
The result is The Siren’s Song, an album that still reflects the Saskatchewan band’s decade-defying style of folk that draws on Appalachian and British influences, but is a better reflection of how the group sounds live. Linthicum jokes it’s the album that will finally get the band booked at some rodeo dances.
That might be true if Kacy & Clayton — second cousins from the Wood Mountain Uplands — could travel back in time to a rodeo dance in the 1960s or ’70s, an era the musicians channel effortlessly. The effect is no less hypnotizing than the mythical creature named in their album title.
Linthicum said Jansen and Silverman bring lots of experience and different musical influences to the table. It also makes for a louder, looser live show.
“Four people, lots of volume, less snacks,” Anderson said.
“Less room in the car,” added Linthicum.
“Mike drinks all our vodka and Shuyler eats all our chips and salsa,” Anderson said as Linthicum laughed. “And all we get is the beer.”
Linthicum chimes in: “And the veggie dip tray.”
“That’s why we’re so skinny now,” she said.
The Siren’s Song was produced by Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy. Kacy & Clayton opened for the Chicago band a year ago. They didn’t expect to speak with Tweedy because he’s a private guy.
“We had a little room backstage and surprising he basically forced
his way into our room and wanted to hang out. We had a good visit before our show, talked about mostly British folk music and Saskatchewan and what his parents did for a living when he was a kid,” Linthicum said.
Tweedy told the group to stop by his studio when they were in
Chicago a few weeks later. The band actually had a studio booked already in Saskatoon, but decided they couldn’t pass up the opportunity to work with him.
Linthicum said Tweedy’s production style is more about listening than dictating. “He has incredible taste in music and knows a lot
of really great, old records. Little parts of songs where we would try to reference old songs he would catch immediately,” he said.
And Tweedy seems to be a fan of Saskatchewan music overall. He is also a fan of Regina musician Andy Shauf, even introducing the musician via video at the 2016 Polaris Music Prize gala.
Anderson said that’s a reflection of a great provincial scene.
“I think Saskatchewan is just pumping out a lot of great music right now so the odds are a lot higher,” she said.