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I think every album should be a progression that shows real growth” I had related this comment to someone who asked why the band have took their time on our upcoming third feature full length album.
Fact is THE SHAFTMEN have always been moving into a groove not far from what Gary Clark, Robert Cray, Bonnie Raitt, Tommy Castro and many American blues rockers have taken up.
That being songs reflecting Soul, R & B, Blues, and Rock.
After I had written the songs over the last 2 years all of the band members Mike Charette, Joseph Di Marco, myself and Gilbert Boissonneault
had plenty of input on the arranging of the material
However, we still maintain our Canadian Northern Ontario Culture and Heritage. And that is completely unique.
Part of the growth had been asking other musicians to add to the sound we had heard when playing the songs in rehearsal and on stage. On three of the album’s tracks we used a horn section and arrangements put together by Monty Kirkpatrick. In addition we asked Steffany Venneri to add harmony vocals on about 5 songs.
Those features show up on the Blues and R & B tracks on the upcoming release.
We could not co-ordinate time schedules with Juno winner Jack De Keyzer which was our fault. The guys could not get time off during the work week when Jack was available.
I produced the album with Engineer George Witham who also mixed the recording and we believe this is our most cohesive album.
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JOHN EMMS is a veteran music journalist, radio host and musician
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