Del Junco has great taste in collaborators

Half of the tunes on Carlos 2

del Junco’s new CD, Hang On, are covers. The rest were written by someone else.

It’s no big deal that the Torontobased musician has “never been much of a songwriter”, as he readily admits when reached at his home: he is a serviceable singer and one of the finest harmonica players alive today, with a big sound and immense melodic flexibility. He’s also got great taste, having picked Gordon Lightfoot’s “Ribbon of Darkness”, Jimi Hendrix’s “Little Wing”, and Tom Waits’s “Jersey Girl” for the new record, alongside a couple of more leftfield choices, such as avant-jazz great John Zorn’s surprisingly atmospheric “The Rain Horse”. But what really sets Hang On apart is five pieces from the pen of stealth superstar Kevin Breit, who also guests on mandolin.

“Kevin’s been a huge influence and inspiration for me,” del Junco notes. “I always say that my records are as much his as they are mine, because he’s got such a distinctive sound.”

The partnership dates back to the early 1990s, when Breit was playing country pop with his siblings Gary and Garth, and del Junco was gearing up for a solo career. “I saw him play with the Breit Brothers,” del Junco recalls. “He was doing a solo Dobro piece and I thought, ‘Who’s this kid?’ It turned out he lived in Toronto, so I hired him for a session and got him to play on my first record. We played together for six months and then he got snagged up by Holly Cole and we’ve barely played live together after that, just for CD releases and the occasional gig.”

Breit—who’s since gone on to work with Norah Jones and Cassandra Wilson—is a fierce improviser but, as del Junco says, there’s also a sweetness about some of his tunes that is well-suited to the harmonica’s almost-human voice.

“I like a lot of things that Kevin does for the reason that they’re quirky, but [on Hang On] I’ve also introduced two melodies, ‘Marjorie’ and ‘Don’t Worry Your Pretty Little Head’, that are just beautiful—two beautiful ballads, you know. Now and then he just writes these songs that are just kind of timeless.”

Breit won’t be able to make del Junco’s West Coast tour, but don’t worry: the harmonica ace will be joined by another exceptional and underrecognized guitarist, Eric St. Laurent, alongside bassist Henry Heilig. There are good reasons for this minimalistic lineup, del Junco allows, including that three people and an upright bass can fit in your average rental SUV. “But I also just love the stripped-down sound,” he adds. “There’s more space, in some ways, to let the music breathe.”

> ALEXANDER VARTY

Carlos del Junco plays St. James Hall on Sunday (March 18).

Tony Wilson is tired but tanned. 2

When the Georgia Straight reaches the Hornby Island musician at his home, he’s just back from several weeks in Costa Rica, where, he happily reports, he’s been having too much fun. “Way too much,” he stresses, laughing.

But it’s not been all sun and surf for the guitarist and composer. This has been his third visit to the Central American country, where he’s been making music with former Vancouverite Rob Armus and other expats. “We’re basically playing in beach bars, playing everything from Johnny Cash to, like, cumbia music,” Wilson reports, adding that Armus’s home base of Playa Sámara is situated on “a five-mile beach lined with coconut trees” and that when he’s not playing music he’s swimming, sometimes three times a day.

It’s a good life. But there are compensations for being back home, chief among them the chance to play with his extraordinary new group, Burn Down the Cornfield, whose repertoire of mostly original compositions is a far cry from the eclectic fare Wilson has been enjoying closer to the equator.

“It’s funny, because I’ve never had any affinity for Latin music, but being down there, of course it gets into you a little bit,” he says. “So I’ve written some music that’s, like, cumbias and stuff like that, which I never would have done. But in the string-quartet band, we don’t really do any of that stuff.”

Instead, the group specializes in Wilson’s wide-screen originals, which range from moody, episodic soundscapes to heartfelt, hymnlike songs, all made singularly “lush”, to use Wilson’s term, by its unusual instrumentation. In addition to Wilson’s guitar, James Meger’s upright bass, and Dylan van der Schyff’s drums, the group incorporates string improvisers Joshua Zubot and Meredith Bates on violin, John Kastilic on viola, and Peggy Lee on cello, with former Be Good Tanyas singer Trish Klein guesting most nights.

Burn Down the Cornfield is a far more complex undertaking than any of Wilson’s Costa Rican bar bands. But in many ways the ethos is the same: it’s all about playing music with friends in a warm and sociable environment and being as creative as possible with what’s at hand.

“I’m really proud of what we’re doing, and I don’t say that lightly,” the usually self-effacing Wilson comments. “And the reason it’s so awesome is that everyone is really into it. And so as a composer or whatever you want to call it—a catalyst, an initiator—it feels awesome when you can see that the musicians, they love to do it. So I’m really lucky that I know people who can take my little ideas and make them beyond anything I could imagine they could be—and at this point in my life, that’s all I care about.

“I mean, what else am I going to worry about?” he adds. “And I don’t have to worry about it very much.”

> ALEXANDER VARTY

Tony Wilson and Burn Down the Cornfield play Frankie’s Jazz Club next Thursday (March 22).

Hang On.