Just Us Folk

“It’s no problem writing crap. But I kind of wanted to write better songs,” Chris Luedecke said.

That in a nutshell is the reason it’s taken so long for Old Man Luedecke to follow up 2019’s Easy Money with his latest album, She Told Me Where to Go.

The album was produced by Afie Jurvanen, otherwise known as Bahamas, whom Chris first met almost 10 years ago at the Canmore Folk Festival and who sang and played guitar on Easy Money.

“Oddly enough, we both have ceramicists for life partners,” Chris said.

“Anyway, we sort of had one of those conversations where maybe we left an impression on one another.”

In 2018, Afie and his family moved to Nova Scotia where Chris and his family live. Soon enough, the two families got together for barbeques followed by nights of playing music. This is where the idea of working together on an album came about.

“I’m a big fan of his music so it was pretty cool to put my music in the context of what he’s got going on,” he said.

Chris’ usual method for creating music is to work on it during the day, and then once people are around, he finds a level of what he calls “performative distraction", where he can subconsciously work around any roadblocks he might have encountered earlier.

“I find a lively environment is sort of beneficial,” he said. “If you’ve broken into that place of having a song, it seems the work goes easily.”

Old Man Luedecke’s first album, Mole in the Ground, came out in 2003, and since then, the two-time Juno Award winner has released eight more well-received albums leading up to She Told Me Where to Go. The issue he’s now faced with is having more popular songs in his repertoire than he can possibly fit into a concert set list. Something will inevitably be left out.

“I posted a song on social media recently that I never play in concert, and six to eight people wrote that it’s their favourite song,” he said. “But I never play it live so there’s just disappointment all around,” he said with a laugh.

When Chris sits down to write a song, he never knows what will come out, but the songs tend to break down into distinctive categories. There are biographical love songs, novelty songs that “elevate the everyday to a spiritual dimension,” songs with spiritual concerns and then songs where he might channel the spirit of a songwriter he loves.

“The song ‘She Told Me Where to Go’ was a big moment for me in composition,” he said. “It’s a country-blues, which I’ve always wanted to write. But it’s also a novelty song. The lyrics are very tongue in cheek.”

Over the years of recording albums, Chris has found his first songs tended to be overwrought, over heart-felt and overly whiny and spiritual. But when he came up with ‘She Told Me Where to Go,’ he knew it was the kind of song he should be writing.

“It feels very natural,” he said. “It feels like it belongs in the world but it’s also a bit funny.”

Chris grew up in Toronto and then spent some time in the Yukon before calling Nova Scotia home in 2005. At that time, he had no idea of how to make a living.

“It was like moving to the outside of the country, and beyond any music business stuff,” he said. “But I realized it’s not going to happen if I didn’t do it.”

He also realized that if it’s going to cost you $30 to drive to a gig, you’d better make at least $30 from the gig. He’s certainly made more than that in the years since.

Reflecting on his home and family in Nova Scotia, Chris is very grateful for all he has.

“I love it,” he said. “Our place has been an ongoing labour of love. It’s where we got married and had kids. We’re lucky enough to have an acreage, and I play the banjo.”

Chris also knows it was fortunate timing that brought him to the Maritimes. There was a creative boom going on from fellow artists like Rose Cousins, David Myles, Matt Andersen and others. The East Coast Music Awards were very robust and looking for new things around the time they were all getting started.

“And we’re still making a go of this,” he said, “which is kind of a miracle really. I would have done what I wanted to do anywhere, I think. But when I look back on it, I can see that, broadly speaking, there were big moments in Canadian folk culture that made my career possible that I’m not without gratitude for.”

For more on Old Man Luedecke and She Told Me Were to Go, go to https://www.oldmanluedecke.ca.