DIE STADT MUZIKANTEN

1. Die Stadt Muzikanten
2. Wood Pigeon vs. Eagleowl (Strength in Numbers)
3. Empty-Hall Sing-Along
4. Morningside
5. My Denial in Argyle
6. Enchantée Janvier
7. Such a Lucky Girl
8. Unmissable Grey, Mixed Paint
9. Duck Duck Goose
10. Spirehouse
11. Redbeard
12. The Street Noise Gives You Away
13. …And as the Ship Went Down, You’d Never Looked Finer
14. The Pesky Druthers (Parts 1 & 2)
15. Our Love is as Tall as the Calgary Tower
16. Untitled

I’ve always been fascinated by the ways people end up where they end up, and endlessly curious as to how my Austrian and Scottish parents ended up in the same high school in the same Canadian city. Die Stadt Muzikanten pushed me to look back even further – to the lives of my grandparents and an attempt to go as far in the direction of epic love songs and pop songcraft that I could. (At the time I also decided it was the last time we’d travel down some of these vaguely country roads in our music, and it was a way to say goodbye to all of what we’d messed about with in our first 5 years as a band). We gathered groups of friends together to sing in choirs and wrote proper parts for proper string and horn sections. We toured a lot, sometimes with bands that we loved and looked up to as heroes. Making this record took a long time and there were a lot of all-night sessions, trying just one more layer, one more harmony – ‘Morningside’ has over a dozen acoustic guitars on it, all strumming in different parts of the stereo spectrum. It sounds like big pillows to me. I’m really proud of the songwriting on this record, and it’s really the last time the original 8 made a record together start-to-finish. Sometimes the hidden little details pop out and surprise me. All songs and lyrics by Mark Andrew of the Hamiltons (except lyrics to Calgary Tower co-written with Jamie Fooks) Produced by Arran Fisher at Acoustikitty, Calgary Recorded in part at Cantos Music Foundation, Calgary Mastered by Ryan Morey at Ryebread Mastering, Montreal

The Cast: Mark Andrew of the Hamiltons, Kenna Burima, Mike "Blades" Gratton, Foon Yap, Peter Moersch, Annalea Sordi-McClure, Daren Powell, Aimee-Jo Benoit

The Supporting Players: Sandro Perri (1), Chris Neville (1), Scott Monro (1), Steve Fletcher (2), Clea Foofat (1, 2, 7, 10), Paul Aucoin (1, 15), Laura Leif (3), Arran Fisher (7, 10, 12, 13), Jennifer Crighton (10), Paul Grindlay (13), Christina John (13), Kris Ellestad (14), Jamie Fooks (15)

The Pesky Druthers Choir Singers: Garrett Sordi-McClure, Lullaby Baxter, Bertram Havisham, Joan Sarro, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Monique Levesque, Beau Lark, Anna Coe, Aaron Booth, Steve Fletcher, Kelly Moffet, Joe Burima, John Bell, Stephen van Kampen, Paul van Kampen, Henry Hsieh, Emily Elder, Peter D. Lewin, Matty John Chyzyk, Jennifer Crighton, Clea Foofat, Mason Hastie. Conducted by Aimee-Joe Benoit