Porkbellys In Europe!
Wildflower Records released our first CD “Way Past Midnight” in Europe on August of this summer and has collected some kudos from some British music mags……
“Blues songs about Ernest Hemingway and Booker winner Michael Ondaatje? Given that the delta pioneers were mostly illiterate, this latest contribution to the current blues revival is an improbably highbrow affair that reflects the status of main songwriter Paul Quarrington as one of Canada’s leading novelists. Quarrington possesses a fine voice that sounds uncannily like James Taylor (remember his 12-bar homage “Steamroller” on Sweet Baby James?) and the band–complete with bassist moonlighting from the Toronto Symphony Orchestra–can choogle and boogie with the best.” Nigel Williamson, Uncut Magazine
“Pork Belly Futures play what they call “red eyed soul” and everyone else calls “12 bar blues”. Their music is muscular and rollicking, but what really makes them a little special is the bar room wit, such as Hemingway (“Hemingway always gets it right, With a simple syntax and a prose that’s right”) – a trucker style anthem for the thinking drinker.” Q4Music
Toronto Star Reviews Way Past Midnight
PorkBelly Futures in New York City
Gregg Quill writes…
“Their first CD, Way Past Midnight, is a masterful effort distinguished by some exceptionally colourful and unusual songs and an authoritative dedication to fundamental folk, roots and blues grooves.†…
Montreal Gazette Review
“As a unit, they’re tight and play like they really mean it, but it’s the songs that set this band apart. These are literary blues tunes for people who have read Hemingway and Atwood and who understand the futility of trying to get your love’s attention when she’s wrapped up in Michael Ondaatje’s In the Skin of a Lion.†PorkBelly Futures’ debut release “Way Past Midnight†was produced by David Gray, former guitarist with Parachute Club and Paul Butterfield. Assisting artists include award-winning Nashville guitarist Colin Linden (O Brother Where Art Thou?), Richard Bell (Janis Joplin, The Band) and The Canadian Brass.
Montreal Gazette
Best Folk/Roots Concert of the 2007
Here’s a nice review from the London Free Press Music Editor, James Reaney.
“Porkbelly Futures played The London Music Club to an appreciative audience and were as bloody great as you’d expect a band good enough to have somebody from the Canadian Brass playing guitars and harmonica, the double bassist from the Toronto Symphony Orchestra bowing away and a Governor General’s Award winning novelist supplying most of the lyrics….. When Porkbelly Futures come back, don’t you dare miss them.†…
London Free Press: James Reaney, Music Editor