Town Heroes release new album
Melodic memories drive the Town Heroes’ Home
INVERNESS — Growing up in Inverness is not like your typical small-town experience.
For the Town Heroes' guitarist and songwriter Mike Ryan, it was like having the world pass by your front door, with tourists, nature lovers and the occasional celebrity stopping by on their way to the scenic Cabot Trail or, more recently, the worldclass Cabot Links Golf Resort.
Ryan — joined by drummer and Mabou native Bruce Gillis for a series of sold-out shows with Matt Mays at Hubbards' Shore Club this week — vividly remembers the global parade of visitors he'd encounter while helping to run a canteen on the beach with his family.
One day, he was cooking burgers on the grill while his dad was manning the till, and renowned U.S. composer Philip Glass stepped up to the counter.
“My dad didn't know who it was, but my brother was going, ‘That's Philip Glass over there!' And my dad says, ‘Are you Philip Glass or wha'?' And he says yes,” recalls Ryan during a leisurely chat in the Halifax Public Gardens about the band's new album "Home."
“‘My boy back there cooking your hamburger, he's got an album out!' So he gives him a copy of 'Birds and Fear,' our very first album, and he opens it up and says, ‘Which one is your son?' He seemed like he was going to go listen to it, but I don't know if he did or not.”
LOCAL INFLUENCE
Whether or not the dual guitar/drum approach of the Town Heroes has influenced the master of musical minimalism remains to be seen (although he has worked with fiddler Ashley MacIsaac from a bit further down the Ceilidh Trail in Creignish), but the influence of Inverness itself can be firmly felt on "Home," where the pair puts their melodic powers to good use on a series of connected songs that recall a teenager's summer in the town, and the unexpected influx of personalities that comes with it.
“For this very brief period during the summer, it all seems to change, and this life all comes into the town that isn't there the rest of the year. And it's still the same in most Cape Breton towns,” said Ryan.
“Inverness is a little busier now all year-round, but in the winter it's still pretty dead. That's just the nature of a tourist town, it's going to quiet down when people go away.”
That feeling even extends to the video for the song "Fuse," shot in the Inverness Miners' Museum, where a picture of Ryan's greatgrandfather hangs on the wall and relics of days gone by give a visual approximation of the band's ancestral roots.
The songs themselves don't reach back quite that far, as they tell a fictional tale inspired by true events, of a teenage boy infatuated with a girl from San Francisco on vacation with her family “who thinks he's the sweetest guy,” said Ryan.
“It's all about coming of age, and firsts, and now being a little bit older and looking back with some nostalgia at what you've experienced.
“Most people had a first kiss, or a first drink, or met new friends for the first time, or felt something for someone for the first time, and feeling heartache for the first time. These are all things that are on the album, and I think most people can relate to that.”
BACK ON STAGE
The Town Heroes summer didn't start out with that carefree feeling of youth, as touring and playing shows were curtailed by COVID-19. The band kept up with fans by releasing the acoustic album "Again," playing online concerts, making comedy sketch videos like a new series about Cape Bretoners in space, and hosting online bingo games with hundreds of players using an old game set that Gillis found in his family home in Mabou.
But as soon as restrictions eased enough to play outdoors, the band was back onstage in Halifax, where Ryan and Gillis have been living in recent years, for the Patio Lanterns Festival on downtown's Grand Parade.
“It was just an amazing feeling, but we were all making jokes about it,” said Gillis. “Like the sound crew going, ‘We don't really know what we're doing anymore ...' and we were kind of the same.
“Everyone was shaking off the rust, but it was such a nice atmosphere and everybody was just in great cheer because we'd been so deprived of it for so long, it was amazing for sure.”
The Town Heroes also had the honour of opening the Inverness Centre for the Arts' all-star Sunset Concert Series — which wraps up on Saturday with Matt Mays and Adam Baldwin — a summer highlight that provided a rare opportunity to play for a crowd of familiar faces in the town where it all started, and provided the inspiration for their latest song cycle.
“It's a really nice feeling to get home,” said Gillis. “You also get home-cooked goods, mom and dad always take really good care of me and Mike's folks are the same. The support there is unbelievable and the same people that were there when we started are still there.
“We haven't made too many enemies yet, hopefully it stays that way.”