Blue Shadows rescued from obscurity

It's waaaay overdue but The Blue Shadows' fantastic 1993 debut  On The Floor Of Heaven  – out of print for about 15 years – is finally back in circulation and it's been given the deluxe reissue treatment to boot.

Long considered among the great lost classics of Canadian roots music, the hugely promising first product of Billy Cowsill's singing and songwriting partnership with Jeff Hatcher – the closest thing to a Canuck Everly Brothers if ever there was – proved to be slightly ahead of the alt-country curve. No Depression magazine wouldn't hit the racks for another two years after all. Although On The Floor Of Heaven earned the Blue Shadows a 1994 Juno nod in the Country Group category (they were perplexingly edged out by the decidedly non-country Rankin Family), it would still take ages for the US real country community to clue into the twangy riches waiting to be discovered in the Great White North. 
For both Blue Shadows diehards and those arriving late to the party, the two-CD deluxe edition of On The Floor Of Heaven (Bumstead Records) – packaging the remastered album with a second disc of stellar studio outtakes – will be a revelatory delight.

Just the track-to-track compositional strength of the Blue Shadows' definitive work is awesome in itself – there's not a duff tune in the bunch – but combined with the impeccable arrangements, superb musicianship and thrilling close harmony singing makes On The Floor Of Heaven one of the greatest-ever Canadian albums in any genre. Add to that a second album's worth of unheard peak-period originals with a few well-chosen covers of Joni Mitchell's Raised On Robbery, Arthur Alexander's Soldier Of Love and Michel Pagliaro's What The Hell I Got and you've got just cause  for the Canadian Academy Of Recording Arts and Sciences to create a new Juno Awards category for Reissue Of The Year to properly honour this stellar set. In any case, the Blue Shadows need to be inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame on the double.
Listening back to all this incredible Blue Shadows music makes you wonder how the events of Billy Cowsill's tragic life might've played out differently if Bumstead boss Larry Wanagas had the foresight to put out this deluxe reissue as a 10th anniversary release back in 2003 when the whole alt-country thing was reaching it's commercial crescendo. At the very least, Billy would've still been around to enjoy some of the belated accolades. Sadly, Cowsill passed away at his home in Calgary on February 18, 2006, less than two months after his brother Barry Cowsill was found dead in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. So the story goes, one of Billy's final wishes was to have On The Floor Of Heaven re-released which he considered some of his very best work. Better late than never.

When Will This Heartache End  by The Blue Shadows

As an addendum, Blue Shadows fans will be pleased to hear that Vancouver singer Wendy Bird recently released an entire album of Jeff Hatcher songs called Natural Wonder (Beaumont Classic Records) and it's a corker. Produced by Odds mainman Craig Northey with a 70s Nashville vibe in mind, the two-day session at North Vancouver's Baker Street studio involved a stacked cast of Can-rock royalty including honorary Canuck Elvis Costello who stopped by to put some chunky guitar on a track.
It took them just 15 hours to get the 12 songs down and Northey, who came up with the brilliant concept of cutting Hatcher's overlooked gems, couldn't be more thrilled with the results judging by his website posting about the project. He's willing to put his bar tab where his mouth is.
"I implore you to buy this record. I will personally guarantee it. I don’t know the technicalities behind a personal guarantee but I am doing it right now. I suppose if you bought it and didn’t like it then I would have to buy you a drink or something. We’ll work that out later because it will never happen. You’ll love it. 

"I produced the record and played on it…but the list of people who played on it is pretty amazing... Elvis Costello, Barney Bentall and all his Legendary Hearts, Odds, Colin James, John Ellis, my sister Morag, Geoff Hicks, Simon Kendall, Rick Hopkins and other CJ band members and alumni and Adam Levy (Norah Jones etc).
"Even more amazing is that almost all these people played together live on a 2-day session. The songs are all Jeffrey Hatcher songs. Jeff is the unsung Canadian songwriter and he deserves a tribute as grand as Blackie and the Rodeo Kings did for Willie P. Bennett." I'll second that.
You can get Wendy Bird's Natural Wonder album from the Beaumont Classic Records site www.beaumontclassicrecords.com

LINKS
The Blue Shadows http://www.myspace.com/theblueshadowscowsill
iTunes http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/on-floor-heaven-deluxe-edition/id375040163