My Hands are on Fire and other Love Songs
- Old Man Luedecke
- Black Hen
"I fly on homemade wings up into the sun/ Seems to me there's room up here for each and everyone." On his third album, Chris (Old Man) Luedecke, the banjo-frailing breath of fresh air out of Chester, Nova Scotia, is Icarus with a better fate. And when he sings about his hands being on fire, the reference has nothing to do with the burn of a sun too close, but of not being idle. Though the songwriting isn't to the standard of its Juno-winning predecessor, Proof of Love, there's charm to spare and new textures - mandolin, harmony vocals and fiddle by bluegrasser Tim O'Brien - which makes for a more countrified sound. Woe Betide the Doer of the Deed is a shuffled Blue Rodeo-ish screed against bankers' greed; the classic folk of The Palace is Golden blames a man's infertility on polluted water; and the mournful My Love Comes Stepping Up the Stairs bemoans the awfulness of a passed-by life. Fly on, Old Man Luedecke, fly on and sing us closer to the sun.
Old Man Luedecke starts a national tour Tuesday in Victoria.
Brad Wheeler