For Prairie Oyster this will not be just another gig – but a return
to their roots, to the place where they grew up and made their
musical debut. For Russell de Carle and Keith Glass, founding
members of Prairie Oyster, the roots go back to a time when
King City was truly a farming community, a mere crossroads in
a rural landscape, approached by a double lane highway lined
with stately Maple trees. It was a time when all the adults knew
each other, and their children played together and formed life
long bonds. According to Glass, “it was an amazing place to
grow up.”
De Carle and Glass had been messing around, playing music
together from the time they were teenagers, but by the time they
reached sixteen they decided they wanted to perform, and they
needed another vocalist. Bob Wallace auditioned and became
the third member of the Humber Creek Boys. The acoustic
band with big three part harmony made their debut at Laskey
Hall, playing a mix of bluegrass, folk and country tunes.
The Humber Creek Boys soon morphed into the King City Slickers in 1971, and, as such, opened locally for The Good
Brothers. “We idolized those guys. They were a big influence
on our sound,” said Glass, who added “back then nobody had
pretensions that just being able to play music made you a star.”
The King City Slickers performed for three years, developing their own distinctive sound, and had what Glass describes as “an almost career as a bar band” when the realization hit that “hey I’m making a living playing music. How cool
is that.”
De Carle and Glass then joined with Dennis Delorme on pedal steel and original drummer Alistair Dennett. It was
Dennett’s mother who named the band Prairie Oyster. “Her
sons-in-law had grown up in North Dakota and knew the term,”
recalled de Carle. “We said okay, that will be fine, never
thinking that 30 years down the road we would still have the
name.”
Not only do they still have the name, but it has become a
verb. Songs are described as being “Oysterized” -- having a
sound that is at once indefinable and yet completely recognizable
and authentic. It is a sound that has produced eight gold
and/or platinum albums since they first released Oyster Tracks
in 1986. Then, as now, the band included keyboardist/songwriter
Joan Besen, and John P. Allen (fiddle).
For the last five years, members pursued individual projects,
producing solo CDs as well as CDs for others. Prairie Oyster
reemerged August, 2006, with the release of the One Kiss, a CD
produced entirely by the band at Keith Glass’s Audio Valley Studio in Perth, Ontario. Each member had material that had not been
recorded and was waiting its time to shine. “We just threw a bunch of songs in the bucket to see which floated,” said Glass of the process.
It was a process that worked. “This is or best collection of songs in the way they fit together,” said de Carle. “People are calling it a coffee table album. They play it again and again and don’t get tired of it. In the past we might perform a couple of songs from each album, but we are performing this whole album live. I think we are more creative now then we have ever been.”
Joining the original members on this release are drummer John Adames, Richmond Hill native, Frank Barth (trombone), Chris Whiteley (trumpet) and jacksoul’s Haydain Neale as guest vocalist. Highlights of the album include the title track One Kiss, with its sexy
latino/rumba feel, enhanced by Whiteley on trumpet and Barth on trombone.
Too Bad for Me is a standout song with an unforgettable melody. “This song was written by a friend of ours, Steve Pineo,” said de Carle. “The first time I heard Steve sing it with (the group) Beautiful Joe, I
knew that I wanted to record the song some day.”
De Carle wrote Heaven or Baton Rouge with another friend, Robert David. “He showed up a couple of years ago and had a bunch of song ideas that really spoke to me, the subject matter was dark, but not preachy.” Haydain Neale of jacksoul lends a haunting vocal to the
track. Written for New Orleans and those victimized by Hurricane Katrina, the song conjures strong images which catch the pain and the sorrow that has been the legacy of that tragedy.
One Kiss is rounded out by original songs by Joan Besen, as well as a couple standards which have been appropriately “Oysterized.”
Prairie Oyster recently has been playing to sold out houses both in Canada and recently in Switzerland. The band is excited about returning to the King area, and the community is looking forward to hearing them. As one long-time resident said, ‘Bring your dancin’ shoes, it’s going to be a great evening.”
