Edgar Breau: Canadian Primitive

$20 CAD (includes shipping)  

"After the demise of simply saucer in 1979, I de-commissioned my electric guitar and assorted pedals, in favour of an exquisite piece of tempered wood."

-edgar breau-

canadian primitive is built on said piece of wood (a hand-made laskin acoustic guitar) and the finer points of its' craft: alternate tunings & finger-picking styles.

it's anchored in the old values of song-craft: melody, harmony, and ear-pleasing arrangements.

and it's reinforced with a lifetime of experience.

consciously rejecting the stylish banality of bohemia, breau

married, begat children, worked nine-to-five jobs, and immersed himself in a world of words.

"as i embarked on the

troubadour thing, it was with many tomes under my arm delineating the 'permanent things' of T.S. Eliot's

memorable expression."

When he began writing again, his musical and lyrical goals were quite different than what he had aimed for in the past.

"the lyrics (of precincts) are a sort of cryptic comment contra the prevailing obsession of the counter-culture with dark imagery. it's my farewell, in a sense, to that old world and a first step via the visionary poets like Yeats, Blake, Coleridge, & Wordsworth on a long journey towards the light..."

As with such writers as Flannery O'Connor, Walker Percy and Faulkner, breau transfigures his regional experiences into vehicles to convey the universal verities of the human condition.

"oh, all the old influences are still intact- syd (barrett), ray (davies), (john) fahey, et al. and there's a craziness inside that never seems to go away.

I just learned

to live with it, that's all."

some words about the players on this recording:

bassist "the legendary" kevin christoff has played with breau for so long now that his melodic lines seem like natural extensions of the songs.

which they are, of course..

harmony vocalist compton roberts

has performed with breau since 1989. he has an excelsior ear and an innate sense of timing.

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