Steve Lambke is an incredibly focused artist. Given the rigorous touring schedule of his band, Constantines, his recent tour dates playing bass with Julie Doiron’s band during June and July, and his own Baby Eagle duties, it is amazing that we are seeing a second Baby Eagle album inside of one calendar year. With a break in his touring schedule and a trip to Sackville, NB during the winter of 2006, Steve Lambke began the process of recording No Blues. “We recorded between Christmas Day and New Year’s Day out in an old farm house in the marsh. A good solid house. We would walk into town for groceries. Go to the bar. Long, long driveway out to the road. Radio towers. Friends and family around.” No Blues is the album title, the title track and the first song written for the album. The song appears here in two very different versions: the first, a solo performance based around the voice and strummed acoustic guitar of Baby Eagle, and the second, a full band take featuring friend and Polaris Prize-nominated singer Julie Doiron on lead vocals. Nearly every song that follows is titled as a blues: ‘Rainwater Blues’, ‘Census-Taking Blues’, ‘Morning Light Blues’, ‘Baby Blues’, ‘Resurrection Blues’. Even the instrumental ‘Blueberry Blues’ is so called. But this is clearly not a blues record, and not meant to be taken as such. It is, after all, called No Blues. Played here by a group of friendly and practiced musicians (Sackville, NB’s Shotgun and Jaybird), and with the intent only to capture some good vibes even in a sad song, the album comes together with an air of humour and reflection. ‘Driving Blind’ is one of the standout tracks on the album. Baby Eagle describes the song as “a love song but with a bit of sadness and worry - like you don’t know where it’s going” – inspired by the feeling of an afternoon driving west with the sun slamming into the snow. It is also interesting to note that ‘Driving Blind’ represents a couple of firsts. The recording of the song is the first time Steve had played with Jesse Baird (Feist, Shotgun and Jaybird) on drums and the version that appears on the album is the first take that was recorded in Sackville, NB. “It was the first time we had tried to play music together...We looked at each other at the end. ‘That was it I think.’ Jesse: ‘yeah, that was it’. It was the only take we ever tried. First song we recorded. Didn't know what we were going to get. Driving blind…” It’s hard to watch Baby Eagle sing his folk songs live and not think about early-Bob Dylan for a moment. The posture, slowly shifting his weight from left to right, as the harmonica rests patiently on his shoulders. Dylan turned his back on folk for The Band and rock ‘n’ roll – Baby Eagle has reversed the cycle by trading slicing rock for the honesty and anonymousness of folk music. No Blues. |
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Catalog
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| Audio |  |
| Song Name | Album | Download | Stream |
| Driving Blind | No Blues | N/A |
