6/25/2023 0 Comments Gord downie![]() Robert Jens Rock, record producer, engineer, guitarist, and songwriter first found success as a core member of the Vancouver, BC punk/new wave/pop band Payola$ before going on to produce and engineer top-selling albums by such timeless artists as Metallica, Bon Jovi, The Tragically Hip, The Cult, Mötley Crüe, Aerosmith, Cher, Loverboy, Bryan Adams, Simple Plan, Michael Bublé and many others. Imagine Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, and Michael Stipe combined into one sensitive, oblique, poet-philosopher, and you’re getting close.” In memoriam, The New York Times stated that Downie has “no parallel in the United States. The Tragically Hip performed their final national tour earlier that summer, leaving an indelible mark on the more than twelve million fans that watched the historic farewell concert, televised from the band’s hometown of Kingston, Ontario. In 2016, Downie presented Secret Path, a multimedia project helping to bring crucial awareness to Indigenous reconciliation in Canada. With seven solo albums to his name, Downie’s own music refutes definition, renowned for its adventurous poetry, collaboration, elastic composition, and singular vocal wail. Gord Downie is the late lead singer and songwriter of The Tragically Hip, who, over more than 30 years and across fourteen studio albums, built an enduring legacy as perhaps the essential Canadian rock band. I am grateful that I got to witness his genius in such close proximity.” “ First and foremost Gord was my friend,” continues Rock, “ and having the opportunity to work with him on these songs was one of the biggest highlights of my professional life. Rock rouses indelible performances from Downie, his vibrant musical imagination and deft production touch igniting songs like the rallying cry of “The Raven And The Red-Tailed Hawk,” the reverberant “Is There Nowhere,” and the spiritually charged “Lustre Parfait” with brash electric melodies and brassy rock n’ roll grandeur. With words by Downie and music by Rock – who also contributes guitars, keyboards, and percussion – Lustre Parfait is unabashedly inspiring and infectious, the gleaming sound of a vivid and vital rock band belting out transcendent new music unlike anything previously heard in the late frontman’s celebrated canon. The sonic spaces that Rock would provide led Downie into the depths of his notebooks, resulting in Lustre Parfait, an unexpected gift from one of Canada’s most cherished voices, a relentless 14-track collection charged by the unifying forces of poetry and power. It was after the second outing that Downie asked if Rock might have music he could write to, stirring both towards new points of expression and experimentalism. Their partnership began in 2006 when Rock – known for his award-winning work with Metallica, Mötley Crüe, and Michael Bublé, to name but a few – produced The Tragically Hip’s acclaimed 10th studio album, World Container, followed in 2009 by the chart-topping We Are The Same. More than a decade in the making, Lustre Parfait sees Downie’s peerless lyricism and incendiary heart given newfangled energy by his longtime friend and collaborator, famed producer/musician Bob Rock. It causes you to look back, and I get choked up every time I hear it, still. The lyric was written before he was diagnosed with the sickness that he had. ![]() It’s special because of what he talks about. It’s absolute perfection in terms of songwriting and in terms of what he did. Somehow, I stumbled on this magic chord, a simple minor to a major progression, and it moved me. The music was based on that journey, this rising tide of chords, crescendos in the chorus. “ Setting a mood and going someplace, just taking you somewhere. “ I’ve always been a fan of long pieces of music,” says Bob Rock. ![]() An official visualizer is streaming now on YouTube. The Moment Is A Wild Place EP – featuring the seven-and-a-half minute title track along with five additional album cuts – is available now at all DSPs and streaming services. Arriving on Friday, May 5, 2LP, CD, and digital formats are available for pre-order now. The epic ballad heralds the upcoming release of Lustre Parfait, the ninth album to bear Downie’s name outside of The Tragically Hip, and the first to bear Rock’s. Arts & Crafts is proud to announce today’s premiere of “The Moment Is A Wild Place,” the latest single from the long-fabled collaboration between Gord Downie, late frontman of legendary Canadian rock band The Tragically Hip, and GRAMMY® Award-winning producer/musician Bob Rock.
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