PHOTO COURTESY PRETTY ARCHIE
East Coast band Pretty Archie will play its unique Canadiana music at the Esplanade on Nov. 14. What's Canadiana? Think Americana with an East Coast flair.
cbrown@medicinehatnews.com@MHNBrown
Collin Gillis and his bandmates in Pretty Archie are no strangers to tough times.
Growing up in Sydney, N.S. at the tail end of the city’s time as a booming steel and coal community gave them a front row seat to the struggles of a post-industrial town. They saw a lot of families pack up and leave in search of greener pastures elsewhere.
Gillis’s family stayed, helping set the stage for the Pretty Archie song “This Whole Town” years down the road. The song is on the new album “Hanging On.”
“That song is about sticking around and getting through the tough times and realizing if you want a place or a town to be better you have to be part of the positive change, you have to tough it out,” Gillis said last week.
Gillis stayed with his friends then and he’s still with them now, making music and playing it across the country. The band is at the Esplanade on Nov. 14 at 7:30 p.m. The show is part of the Medicine Hat Brewing Company ON-Stage Series.
The guys jammed casually growing up and in 2012 decided to give full-time music a shot. Safe to say the decision has worked out.
“When we first started we didn’t really have any plans or any real thoughts on where it could go so I think if anything it’s gone better and longer that we would have originally thought,” said Gillis, who covers harmonica, vocals and bass. “It’s pretty cool. We get to travel a lot of places across the world and play our own tunes and write music with friends. So it’s hard to complain.”
Playing and writing with lifelong friends makes everything about the journey a little easier, Gillis said. First off there was no internal arguing about what the band and music would be about. And being around the same age and with similar life experiences brings like-minded sensibilities to songwriting, but each member still brings their own individual take.
“We all come from different musical backgrounds and the music that comes out is because we’re friends first and then bandmates second,” Gillis explained. “It’s pretty genuine I guess you could say.”
Gillis describes the sound as Canadiana – it’s like Americana but distinctly Canadian because of the East Coast roots sound.
“It’s a mix of all of the roots genres,” he said. “It’s got some country, some folk, some bluegrass and some blues and a little bit of soul I guess sprinkled in. You shake it all up and we’re somewhere in the middle of all that.”
Pretty Archie has travelled through Medicine Hat before but next week’s show will be the first time they’ve played here.
Having a healthy amount of transplanted East Coasters here is a plus. Knowing there’s likely to be some familiar faces in the crowd is like a gift for Pretty Archie. Gillis likes to think they give a gift right back.
“It’s kind of an honour for us to give them a little taste of home too,” he said. “Maybe there’s somebody who’s been out there a while and is maybe a little homesick. We can bring a little bit of the ocean to them.”
The band is usually a five-piece with Brian Cathcart (lead vocals, guitar), Matt McNeil (mandolin, guitar), Redmond MacDougall (banjo, percussion, vocals) and Scott MacLean (guitar, mandolin). With a new baby at home McNeil is not with the band on this tour.
Tickets for the show are available online at tixx.ca, by calling 403-502-8777, and in person at the Esplanade box office or the Medicine Hat Mall guest services desk. Bundle packages are also available for the ON-Stage Series.
Next up for the series is Matthew Byrne on Jan. 9.
