Cigarette Tricks: What to Download Tuesday: Good, Pinsent & Keelor

You might have noticed things have been a little quiet here on Cigarette Tricks since last week (though, in case you missed it, on Saturday I posted a few thoughts on Mark Sultan live, which you can read here). In my defense, I've been swamped trying to complete the revisions on this John Carter II: The Medallion Stallion script. Seriously, folks, this movie promises to be even more off the hook than the first! Unfortunately, these time constraints will impact my "What to Download" feature for this week as well. Fortunately, I've already provided some background on this pick in a previous post. While the news of the collaboration between Canadian acting legend Gordon Pinsent and Canadian country-rockers Travis Good and Greg Keelor (of The Sadies and Blue Rodeo respectively) sounded strange and unexpected, the finished product is about as familiar and comfortable as your favorite sweater. Not only does Down and Out in Upalong recall the folk-country side of Good and Keelor's main projects, but even more so it brings to mind Gordon Lightfoot and, to get even more specific, The Unintended's (a side project featuring Good and Keelor, along with Rick White and Dallas Good) 2006 split album "...Play Lightfoot." Good and Keelor have taken Pinsent's words and his tales of Newfoundland and tailored them into their own Lightfoot-esque brand of Canadiana. In short, for anyone immersed in or brought up on the likes of Lightfoot, Young, and Blue Rodeo, this record should feel like an old friend. Standouts include "Peter Easten," "Easy Ridge," and "Old Part of Town." Also, I should note, when I first heard about this project I was a little worried about the Pinsent spoken-word parts. Fortunately, the spoken-word pieces are keep completely separate from the melodic pieces, with the latter comprising the first eleven tunes and the former making up the second part of the record.

An extremely close runner-up for record of the week is M. Ward's A Wasteland Companion, an album that also feels like an old friend. I rambled on a little bit about how I was looking forward to this one back in February, and the finished product feels like return to form after the slightly scattered 2009 Hold Time. Full list of new releases is after the jump.

Good, Pinsent & Keelor, Down and Out in Upalong