I thought Joel Plaskett was dead. I was certain, because last year a bunch of Canadian musicians came together and played his music for a celebration album. It was called Songs From The Gang – A Celebration of Joel Plaskett, really I stood no chance. But no, he’s well and alive. And he still makes music and tours!

If you don’t know who Joel Plaskett is, he’s hard to pin down. His music ranges from soft folk ballads, to rolling rock stompers. If you want to get into him, check out his album Three. It’s three discs, each with 9 songs. One of the parts of the albums theming is some songs are a word repeated three times, Through & Through & Through, Pine, Pine, Pine, Down, Down, Down, and Deny, Deny, Deny just to name a few.

Through x3, has a real classic rock vibe, and I mean CLASSIC rock, back to the early seventies almost, but throwing in some revolver-era Beatles with the horn usage.

Pine, Pine, Pine, is almost like 80’s country music. I can easily imagine this song appearing on the Highwaymen’s discography. Down, Down, Down is right in its right time. Did you ever listen to The Green Album? Not the one by Weezer, but the one with all the Muppets cover songs, it’s really great, check it out. But this song would fit right in on that album. It’s got folkish qualities to it, but amazing vocal production. The harmonies, and that kind of echo thing he puts on the vocal fills? Man, it near puts me to sleep with how at peace I am. And Deny, Deny, Deny is like an Oh, Hellos song, they had that song Soldier, Poet, King 10 years ago that pops up on Instagram now and again. But it’s also got some classic Sloan in there. When those vocal harmonies kick in, it felt like that scene in Ratatouille when the critic tries the food and has a flashback to his childhood, except, it was One Chord To Another.

But the reason I bring all this up, is because a musician of his caliber, who is beloved by the Canadian music scene to the point where they all came together to record a birthday album for him, played on Pender Island last week. Isn’t that crazy? That’s like if Paul McCartney decided to play a show at a community hall in Rhode Island. I mean, not quite because Paul McCartney is y’know, Paul, but my point stands!