Yep.  A great country.  Just played two shows at the Electric Picnic.  A surreal festival.  Giant foxes, canoes in trees, baby’s with florescent green headphones.  Hippies, punks, accountants, race car drivers.  You name it, they’ve here.  Saw Janelle Monae, Laura Marling, Paul Brady and Steve Earle.  Tomorrow, off to the UK for the BNL tour.  onwards!

Joel

A blast! Check out this great photo that Jack Ronalds took!

Hey Everybody,

It’s great to be home from the UK.  It was epic. Long flights – Iron Man II is terrible.  More about that later but first –  some pressing business.  My good friend, Bob Hoag, the talented engineer and producer who recorded Ladeda for me many moons ago, is trying to get a cameo appearance on the hit show, Madmen.  He more than looks the part, he is it, and he NEEDS your support.  Vote for him here!  It’s of the utmost importance that he win, the future of recording in style in Arizona depends on you!  - JOEL

VOTE FOR BOB!

click here

Joel Plaskett – Three to One
Someone mentioned the other day that Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu once lived in the same road in Soweto. Who the third greatest man on the street was, history doesn’t relate, but it’s a safe bet he didn’t get the credit he deserved. It must be nearly the same in Canada, where any blossoming singer-songwriter inevitably wilts a little in the shadow of Neil Young, Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchell, three of the all-time best. Nova Scotia’s Joel Plaskett is a reasonably big noise there, though, and if he isn’t in the top league at 35, he’s in a strong second division with Ron Sexsmith, Bruce Cockburn and others. Three To One, a slimmed-down version of a triple album called Three, is a really vivid sampler of Plaskett’s craft. Mixing Celtic strummers and nimble power-pop, then throwing in clever vocals, it harbours a wit and earthy drama that makes you wonder how his name hasn’t got out before.

by Adam Woods