Revival Dear

"I just saw that amazing Martin Scorcese documentary called the Last Waltz the other night, one of the best rock docs ever... Revival Dear reminds me of the energy and the talent that The Band exhibits that night back in 1975 in San Francisco." - CBC Radio 3 - Grant Lawrence

Revival Dear’s self-titled debut, released in Oct. 2007, has been attracting the attention of CBC listeners nationally. The song Ol’s In The Water remained on the chart for 9 straight weeks and peaked at:

#4 on CBC Radio 3 for week
ending Apr 3, 2008 - CBC Radio 3 - Craig Norris

Revival Dear is like the best bar band (with obvious exceptions to the rule.)I’ve seen in a while. Really you could transcend their sound to match a lot of different genres. A little country, a little southern rock, and a lotta piss and vinegar. Really these guys would win best new to me band of the festival. I asked the lead female vocalist for their set list (I had a little crush), She said they didn’t have one, but she told me to check them out at another slot a day later, she’d have one for me then. Well I never went, maybe next year? After these messages… will be right back.
- Dorian Graying

Revival Dear is one of the bands I discovered hanging out at C'est What on Sunday nights last year (when they still had the Sunday night thing going on). Now one of my best friends is their manager, and they play every Wednesday night at Castro's, which is the closest bar to my place. So I see them perform every now and then. However, their performance at The Dakota Tavern was the most exciting I've seen yet. That place, with old wood lining on the wall behind the stage and the simple and very unique lighting just seemed to bring out their best. It didn't hurt that the place was filled to capacity. Their music is country-inspired rock, so the location worked perfectly for them. Oh, and it was loads of fun. - Pete Nema

Discovering your sound does not come easily for most bands.
Years are often spent honing your abilities and by the time you’ve
found your singing voice, or learned a few guitar licks, you’re
ready to write some songs. The first few usually aren’t so hot. It
takes a good couple dozen before you find a balance between
where your strengths lie and where your inspirations hit your
heart. Naturally, as this time progresses and your talents mature,
so do your tastes. Whichever band you loved that owned
Muchmusic when you started is maybe by now less important as
you begin discovering the classics. Bob Dylan; Neil Young; The
Band; Muddy Waters; all the artists that sounded like your
parents’ music until you could finally let down your high school
blinders and appreciate that maybe the roots of modern music
are the roots for a reason. Eddie Orso and Shelley Hayes spent a
lot of years playing rock n’ roll in various incarnations before they
formed Revival Dear, a group whose hearts lay firmly in the roots–
based Canadiana of their heroes.
“Roots music is real, it’s honest,” Orso explains of his
commitment to that aesthetic. “I love old instruments, songs
about the country and vocal harmonies. Old time music is worn–
in and it just feels right.”
Eddie Orso and his partner in music, Shelley Hayes, have a
long history of collaboration, but it was a Big Pinkian change of
scenery that started turning the gears of Revival Dear, which has
quickly become their most successful, (both commercially and
artistically), endeavour.
“Shelley and I have been singing together for years now,” he
says, “but it wasn’t until moving to Toronto when the name
Revival Dear and the sound of Revival Dear came through us. We
rented a house and turned the basement into a recording studio
and just worked out there for two years. The Band, Bob Dylan,
Blue Rodeo, and Gram Parsons were all in heavy rotation and
we found ourselves falling into a very rootsy, Canadiana kind of
sound.”
The move to Toronto came after several years on the scene in
Kitchener–Waterloo, where their former outfit, (Samsara), met
with moderate success, but they needed something more. They
needed a new scene, with new folks and new ears, and they found
a fertile ground, and a good many collaborators in the big city.
“We moved to Toronto to network and get into a bigger
scene. Living in a big house with a band was pretty inspiring
itself. We developed our sound over the next few years, just
soaking up our old vinyl collection. If you learn how to play the
mandolin, banjo, or upright bass, you’ll find yourself writing old
time roots music. And that is what we did. We have a basement
flooded with vintage instruments and away we went!”
“As we settled into Toronto,” Orso continues, “we started
going out to open–mic’s and bars to meet people. The C’est What
had an unbelievable open jam night. That is where we met,
(producer), Terence Gowan. He took a shine to us, as we did to
him, and shortly after we were recording our record at Don Kerr’s
studio, The Rooster. Most of the overdubs were done at the Rock
Basement, (our house in Toronto). We also recorded some
finishing touches with Jeremy Darby at Canterbury Studios.”
The result of these sessions is Revival Dear’s self–titled
debut, a rollicking, authentic, straight–from–Saugerties revival of
the style and tunes that were once perfected by the rebellious
vanguard of groups like The Hawks and Gram Parson’s Fallen
Angels. Orso and Hayes share vocal duties evenly throughout and
certainly immediately recall the best of Parsons’ and Emmy Lou
Harris’ duets, but the songs are so crisp and poppy that further
inspection reveals even a kinship with Lindsay Buckingham–Stevie
Nicks era Fleetwood Mac, (see opening track “Town That I’ve
Known”). All thirteen tracks employ a myriad of classy
instruments, from the loving mandolin and pedal steel licks on
“Century Toy”, the Garth Hudson–esque accordion of “Workin’
Man”, the truly excellent Hammond work on “Give Me The Blues”,
and the smatterings of banjo and fiddle dusted across the album.
All of this lends Orso’s and Haye’s vocal work a rich bedrock
upon which to paint their masterpiece. It’s a remarkable record
that can be committed in this day and age and still sound like it
could have come from any generation’s roots heroes. Revival Dear
have worked hard to make such a record, but it shouldn’t be
interpreted as any sort of musical history lesson. After all, it’s only
rock n’ roll, and Revival Dear want to see you dance.
“We like to leave audiences feeling like it’s OK to stomp your
feet, sing along, and be a part of the show,” Orso explains of their
mission. “We like to extend our songs into long piano or
harmonica jams and sing ‘til our voices crack. We have fun, and in
doing so, so does our audience.” - Echo Weekly

Imagine, in these woebegone, vapid days of what can barely be called music that there is a new group with a timeless, deep and soulful feel that just makes a listener feel good, right and just at the same time.

Impossible, you say? Well, it’s not. Check out “Revival Dear,” the outstanding debut release from the so talented that it should be illegal Eddie Orso and Shelley Hayes, a pair of Canadians who are drawing righteous comparisons with so many of the past and present stellar acts emanating from north of the border.

It is just so rare, make it extraordinary, in these pre-programmed times of studio wizardry masking serious lack of talent that two people can make an album sound so fresh, so detailed and yet so delicately simple and emotional at the same time.

From the electric bounce of the opening track, “Town That I’ve Known,” to the timeliness of “Hog Tied,” to the beauty and pathos of “Hometown Down Heart,” and all the other great tracks, Orso and Hayes sound magnificent together. All together, they have constructed one of the classic albums of the year.

“Revival Dear” is amazing. I haven’t felt this good about music from Canada since the heyday of The Band.

(five stars *****)

Mark Gould
Sound Waves Magazine
Connecticut, USA - Sound Waves Magazine - Connecticut USA

“Absolutely of-the-moment and
simultaneously timeless, Revival Dear
are energetic, melodic, and
heartbreakingly good."
- Blair Packham cohost of Rock Talk CFRB

"Harmonies that make you feel both
haunted and hankering for a
hoedown, Revival Dear are
a fearless force on the scene of new down-home rock n roll."
- Emm Gryner - Singer/Songwriter