Canadian Musician November / December 2019 | Page 44

THE EAST
POINTERS
It’s
notable that we hear
Tim Chaisson’s un-
mistakably smooth
singing voice on
“Wintergreen,” the opening track
on The East Pointers’ third studio
album, Yours to Break.
Though the band’s first two LPs
– the Juno-winning Secret Victory
from 2015 and Juno-nominated
What We Leave Behind from 2017
– had their share of vocal-anchored
tunes, both began with a more tradi-
tional-leaning instrumental offering,
buoyed instead by the trio’s virtuosic
fiddle, banjo, and guitar melo-
dies. As such, the fact that they’re
jumping straight into the lyricism
on album number three feels like a
subtle statement.
Since formally uniting a few
years back, the contemporary folk
trio has straddled the balance
between the traditional stylings
on which they’ve built their sonic
foundation and the more contempo-
rary explorations that have elevated
it to something wholly unique and
undeniably compelling.
Now, it seems that they’re confi-
dently leaning towards the latter side.
The East Pointers is comprised of
Chaisson on lead vocals and fiddle,
cousin Koady Chaisson on banjo
and tenor guitar, and Jake Charron
on guitar and keyboards. They came
together in 2014 and quickly gained
recognition for their fiery and fun
live performances, first in Atlantic
Canada and then pushing west-
ward. Charron is from Ontario while
the cousins Chaisson were born
and bred on PEI and were actually
performing together in Tim’s solo
project around the time the group
initially came together. Over the first
44 CANADIAN MUSICIAN
A Fresh Take on
Traditional Sounds
year or so, The East Pointers’ fast as-
cent coincided with the winding down
of Tim’s solo career, which has basically
been on pause since.
The trio came out of the gates
swinging with Secret Victory, which, in
addition to the Juno nod and eventu-
al win, also earned them a Canadian
Folk Music Award and invitations to
tour throughout North America and
Australia.
Though the album can be consid-
ered the most “traditional-leaning” of
their three thus far, it did showcase the
more modern and mainstream sensi-
bilities that have only become more
apparent over subsequent releases and
ultimately come to define their signa-
ture sound.
“On this album, and even a bit on
the last one, it was more important to
us to make it feel natural than to worry
about keeping things ‘traditional,’”
Tim Chaisson tells Canadian Musician
on the balcony of his family home in
Eastern PEI, overlooking the beauti-
ful shoreline of the Northumberland
Straight. “For all of us to be musically
fulfilled, it’s about writing what we feel
best represents us as musicians and as
a group.”
While the trio is technically based in
PEI, Chaisson is the only member avail-
able this September day as Koady is in
Australia and Charron in the U.K. with
their respective partners – a testament
of sorts to the extensive international
touring they’ve done in recent years.
That desire to bend and blend
genres in a way that honours their mu-
sical backgrounds while pushing them
to new places informed the decision to
once again tap producer Gordie Samp-
son for the Yours to Break sessions.
The Cape Breton native is a decorated
performer in his own right, though his
biggest successes have come from his
By Andrew King
co-writing work in the country world,
penning hits for the likes of Carrie Un-
derwood, Keith Urban, Luke Bryan, and
many others.
“We had such an amazing time
working with Gordie on our last album
that it was kind of a given for us to
work with him again,” says Chaisson,
who’s not short on praise for his pro-
ducer. “He’s so familiar with all of the
different styles that we do – pop, coun-
try, traditional, folk – and it’s awesome
to work with someone that understands
those different worlds so well.”
The results speak for themselves.
The aforementioned “Wintergreen”
is anchored by the organic instrumen-
tation associated with the group’s
traditional Celtic and North American
roots, opening with a simple-but-sticky
banjo melody and begging for some
rhythmic foot-stomping. It also tees up
Chaisson for one of the most mem-
orable sung choruses in the band’s
catalogue thus far.
From there, they effortlessly sway
between the pop-structured sung
material and intricate instrumental
melodies, and on tunes like “Halfway
Tree,” strike a perfect balance between
the two. In that song specifically, Chais-
son’s striking falsetto-led choruses are
counterbalanced by some delightfully
danceable fiddle solos.
Even the more traditional-leaning
instrumentals showcase The East
Pointers’ hybrid execution in spades.
The all-instrumental “Power to Move”
wouldn’t be out of place at an Atlantic
Canadian kitchen party – at least with
a bare-bones arrangement; the album
version, however, is elevated with a
subtle digital drum track, some keys,
and a couple of breakdowns that would
sound more at home at Tomorrowland
than Hinterland.
“Jake’s playing more keys on this