The Unseen Strangers

o the other day I noticed an interesting band named, The Unseen Strangers at number 25 on the Roots Music Folk Chart. The album was Follow the Sound, I looked around at several music sites and I couldn’t find the album. What I did find was their 2010 release Time Travel, so I settled for that album. Well I shouldn’t say settled because the albums is terrific! First there’s the picking which is outstanding. Any band that kicks off an album with an instrumental, in this case, a track titled “Windmill Road” has my attention immediately! On the second track, it was the tasty fiddle and then the mandolin on the next track, after it may have been the banjo! Because you see that the picking throughout the album is great! Then there are the vocals and songs which are just as good and when you put it all together you get a really fine bluegrass from this five man band from Canada!!

The members of the band are:Adam Shier Guitar/Vocals,Dan Latner Fiddle/Vocals, Matt Elwood Banjo/Vocals, James McEleney Bass/Vocals and Mike Mezzatesta Mandolin. The band formed in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 2007 and within two years, their debut release Shoot First won the 2009 Music Nova Scotia Award for “Country/Bluegrass Recording of the Year”. The know good music up in Nova Scotia. From their website:

The Unseen Strangers have ambitiously cultivated a musical identity shaped by good old-fashioned bluegrass, the limitless barrage of contemporary musical influences, and a relentlessly curious sense of humour. The Strangers draw from the beeps and buzzes of the modern world to create an imaginative, energetic brand of acoustic music that is unmistakably their own. The band has toured Eastern Canada three times, performing showcases at NXNE and OCFF to name a few, and is a favorite at festivals featuring genres spanning Folk, Country, Bluegrass, Rock, and Electronic.
Oh, by the way, Follow the Sound was originally released as an EP, a full album with the same title will be released on April 2, 2013, and I know I’m marking the date on my calendar!!

Here’s the official video for their song “I Don’t Know” - Me, Myself, Music, and Mysteries

We received news of another free download offering this week from a band north of the USA called The Unseen Strangers. In 2007 The Unseen Strangers formed in Halifax, Nova Scotia and within two years, the Strangers’ debut release had won the 2009 Music Nova Scotia Award for “Country/Bluegrass Recording of the Year”.

From their website we learn that The Unseen Strangers have ambitiously cultivated a musical identity shaped by good old-fashioned bluegrass, the limitless barrage of contemporary musical influences, and a relentlessly curious sense of humour. The Strangers draw from the beeps and buzzes of the modern world to create an imaginative, energetic brand of acoustic music that is unmistakably their own.The band has toured Canada three times, playing showcases at NXNE and OCFF to name a few, and is a favorite at festivals featuring genres spanning Folk, Country, Bluegrass, Rock and Electronic.

The Unseen Strangers are Adam Shier on guitar and vocals; Dan Latner on fiddle and vocals; Neil Wiancko on banjo and vocals; James McEleney on bass and vocals and Jeff Rothwell on mandolin and vocals.

The Unseen Strangers aren’t pretending to be cowboys. They’ll interrupt themselves for an instrumental breakdown of ‘I Like To Move It’ – The Globe and Mail.

Their new album Follow the Sound, is to be found here. - Australian Bluegrass Dot Com

Originaire de la Nouvelle-Écosse et demeurant maintenant à Toronto, le groupe The Unseen Strangers lançait récemment Follow the Sound, un maxi de six chansons. Disponible en téléchargement à contribution volontaire, le EP permet au quintette de pousser un plus loin son concept de Progressive Bluegrass. Il ne faut pas chercher la progression dans l’instrumentation ou dans les thématiques. Avec guitares, contrebasses, mandolines, banjos, violons et harmonies vocales, The Unseen Strangers a un son semblable à celui de leurs collègues de l’univers bluegrass.

C’est plutôt dans leur approche mélodique qu’on décèle des inspirations pop et folk. Derrière la ruralité des intentions premières, on retrouve quelque chose de moderne dans la façon d’aborder les arrangements, les constructions et le passage d’accords majeurs en accords mineurs. À première écoute, le bluegrass progressif semble subtile, mais il est efficace et bien incorporé à l’intérieur du son unique développé par The Unseen Strangers.

Il faut reconnaître que le quintette sait particulièrement comment prendre son groove bluegrass travaillé et peaufiné pendant toute une chanson et l’amener ailleurs, grâce à des passages instrumentaux qui cassent ce moule. Les changements de mesures entre le couplet et le refrain d’Out of the Light sont assez intéressants pour nous accrocher, sans toutefois briser l’authenticité de la démarche de The Unseen Strangers. On note également le brillant pont presque post-Bluegrass de Dustpan Line où le groupe joue avec les ambiances, le temps de repartir au point a. La musicalité de la pièce instrumentale Crosswalk est étonnante et mémorable, tout en se démarquant particulièrement du lot.

Quelques longueurs engourdissent l’écoute, même si cela est dû à l’interprétation très live et off the floor de la formation. On a l’impression que The Unseen Strangers n’est pas encore rendu à son plein potentiel, qui se trouve probablement en spectacle. En attendant, ce maxi est une belle petite surprise. - 500khz

Originaire de la Nouvelle-Écosse et demeurant maintenant à Toronto, le groupe The Unseen Strangers lançait récemment Follow the Sound, un maxi de six chansons. Disponible en téléchargement à contribution volontaire, le EP permet au quintette de pousser un plus loin son concept de Progressive Bluegrass. Il ne faut pas chercher la progression dans l’instrumentation ou dans les thématiques. Avec guitares, contrebasses, mandolines, banjos, violons et harmonies vocales, The Unseen Strangers a un son semblable à celui de leurs collègues de l’univers bluegrass.

C’est plutôt dans leur approche mélodique qu’on décèle des inspirations pop et folk. Derrière la ruralité des intentions premières, on retrouve quelque chose de moderne dans la façon d’aborder les arrangements, les constructions et le passage d’accords majeurs en accords mineurs. À première écoute, le bluegrass progressif semble subtile, mais il est efficace et bien incorporé à l’intérieur du son unique développé par The Unseen Strangers.

Il faut reconnaître que le quintette sait particulièrement comment prendre son groove bluegrass travaillé et peaufiné pendant toute une chanson et l’amener ailleurs, grâce à des passages instrumentaux qui cassent ce moule. Les changements de mesures entre le couplet et le refrain d’Out of the Light sont assez intéressants pour nous accrocher, sans toutefois briser l’authenticité de la démarche de The Unseen Strangers. On note également le brillant pont presque post-Bluegrass de Dustpan Line où le groupe joue avec les ambiances, le temps de repartir au point a. La musicalité de la pièce instrumentale Crosswalk est étonnante et mémorable, tout en se démarquant particulièrement du lot.

Quelques longueurs engourdissent l’écoute, même si cela est dû à l’interprétation très live et off the floor de la formation. On a l’impression que The Unseen Strangers n’est pas encore rendu à son plein potentiel, qui se trouve probablement en spectacle. En attendant, ce maxi est une belle petite surprise. - 500khz

‘The Unseen Strangers’ newest EP has a lovely soothe your soul backwoods country bluegrass sound. This Halifax born, but now Toronto based, band is currently touring Canada’s countryside. This seems apt as Adam Shier’s lyrics conjure images of the rivers and mountains that come between the road. That is, the roaming life and rich culture of touring musicians. On the whole I believe this EP is best described as a bluegrass treasure trail. The first song ‘Out of The Light’, for instance, is essentially classic blue grass with beautifully crafted tempo shifts. These guys have a classic Appalachian bluegrass style but little surprises lay along the way, as you will hear in the extended introspective breakdown in 'dustpan line'. Banjo player Neil Wiancko has bright beautiful tone often with subdued dynamics in order to work in tandem with the vocals. James McEleney is a rock on the bass, while adding creative melodic subtleties. Dan Latner is on Fiddle and Andrew Collins on mandolin, they swoop in on occasion with an intricate solo or some harmonious accompaniment, needless to say,
‘The Unseen Strangers’ have a rich and vibrant sound.

One of the first things I noticed about this EP was the commitment to a bluegrass style while still maintaining originality. Three out of six songs on EP are current but classic beautiful original bluegrass. The other three songs employ the same bluegrass roots but also have specific sections, which employ a jazzy new grass style. I have always felt that certain genres of music are used in very specific aspects of our lives. For instance I've always felt that bluegrass music is a healer very similar to the blues in passion and plot but more akin in style to jazz. Recently bluegrass has seen a resurgence. Creative musicians reaching for a wider audience have come together to form new grass. This is a musical style that can incorporate many musical genres, be it punk metal or rock and roll or in this case jazz and classical music, while still remaining true to essential bluegrass roots. The Unseen Strangers have captured this essence in their new EP. This has birthed into being a new style of music, which is not only a healer but also an intricate playground for the senses. - Round Table Radio

‘The Unseen Strangers’ newest EP has a lovely soothe your soul backwoods country bluegrass sound. This Halifax born, but now Toronto based, band is currently touring Canada’s countryside. This seems apt as Adam Shier’s lyrics conjure images of the rivers and mountains that come between the road. That is, the roaming life and rich culture of touring musicians. On the whole I believe this EP is best described as a bluegrass treasure trail. The first song ‘Out of The Light’, for instance, is essentially classic blue grass with beautifully crafted tempo shifts. These guys have a classic Appalachian bluegrass style but little surprises lay along the way, as you will hear in the extended introspective breakdown in 'dustpan line'. Banjo player Neil Wiancko has bright beautiful tone often with subdued dynamics in order to work in tandem with the vocals. James McEleney is a rock on the bass, while adding creative melodic subtleties. Dan Latner is on Fiddle and Andrew Collins on mandolin, they swoop in on occasion with an intricate solo or some harmonious accompaniment, needless to say,
‘The Unseen Strangers’ have a rich and vibrant sound.

One of the first things I noticed about this EP was the commitment to a bluegrass style while still maintaining originality. Three out of six songs on EP are current but classic beautiful original bluegrass. The other three songs employ the same bluegrass roots but also have specific sections, which employ a jazzy new grass style. I have always felt that certain genres of music are used in very specific aspects of our lives. For instance I've always felt that bluegrass music is a healer very similar to the blues in passion and plot but more akin in style to jazz. Recently bluegrass has seen a resurgence. Creative musicians reaching for a wider audience have come together to form new grass. This is a musical style that can incorporate many musical genres, be it punk metal or rock and roll or in this case jazz and classical music, while still remaining true to essential bluegrass roots. The Unseen Strangers have captured this essence in their new EP. This has birthed into being a new style of music, which is not only a healer but also an intricate playground for the senses. - Round Table Radio

A wide-eyed toddler in tiny Converse sneakers stares at three beards congregated around a single microphone. With no cords in their way, the fiddle, guitar and banjo players trade places at the mic with ease.

The little girl in the Converse is mesmerized. A man with an auburn beard and red flannel shirt shoots out an arm to stop her from climbing up onstage.

It’s the Unseen Strangers’ first Sunday matinee at the Gladstone and the tables have been packed all afternoon. The five-piece group formed in Halifax in 2006 and steadily gigged their way to a Music Nova Scotia Award for “Country/Bluegrass Recording of the Year” in 2009.

When the Unseen Strangers moved to Toronto in early 2010, they joined a slew of young musicians taking advantage of a burgeoning bluegrass scene. But in Toronto, bluegrass’s popularity is narrow in scope, often relegated to Sunday-morning brunch accompaniment. And in the few venues that book the genre, the city’s new generation of bluegrass musicians struggle to be appreciated as contemporary artists, as opposed to a novelty act for bleary-eyed bohos coming off a bender, or – as at the Dakota – laid-back parents and their tiny groovy children. (“You put kids in front of a banjo playing at 500 miles an hour, they go crazy,” says local mandolin player Andrew Collins.) But the ubiquity of weekend afternoon events threatens to push bluegrass into the background. “It reminds me of classical guitar gigs,” grins Ben Wright, guitarist in the Free Whiskey String Band. “You’re just that guy in the corner.”

Like the Unseen Strangers in their hometown of Halifax, Free Whiskey enjoyed a musical monopoly until they moved to Toronto from Kingston and had to compete with other groups for a limited downtown audience.

The Slocan Ramblers view the Dakota Tavern as “a rite of passage” for the city’s bluegrass bands, but the group has yet to play the popular country bar. While the Unseen Strangers have played a handful of shows at smaller clubs in Kensington Market, they’re hoping to inch a little closer to the centre of the Queen West hub with venues like the Rivoli and the Hideout.

“Bars in Toronto have certain images they have to maintain,” Free Whiskey bass player Tim O’Reilly says. In the band’s hometown, the musical landscape is far less complicated. “In Kingston,” Mr. Wright says, “any bar with live music is a bar you should be playing at.”

Most bluegrass bands find receptive crowds away from the hype of the city. Summer festivals, like New Brunswick’s Sunseeker and Evolve in Nova Scotia, provide a welcome relief from the grind of the brunch circuit. For Daniel Latner, fiddle player for the Unseen Strangers, they offer a chance to play to crowds who appreciate their contemporary take on the genre: “At a festival, people get it.”

Performing for kids and their harried parents, on the other hand, can prove less satisfying. “I don’t feel the brunch is a great gig in terms of connecting with the audience,” Mr. Collins admits. Mandolin player Adrian Gross of the Slocan Ramblers agrees the brunch crowd is “not the most attentive audience.” But working musicians aren’t about to pass up a paying job. “These are the gigs where people are probably making more money,” Mr. Latner notes.

Outside the window at the Gladstone, the relentless Queen West construction is a reminder that we ain’t on the farm. And the Unseen Strangers aren’t pretending to be cowboys. They’ll interrupt themselves for an instrumental breakdown of I Like To Move It, or indulge in a rendition of Weezer’s Pink Triangle.

Toronto’s bluegrass musicians share this sense of humour, along with a sense of community: after producing their second album, Mr. Collins introduced the Unseen Strangers to Free Whiskey, and Mr. Wright lived with Mr. Gross for a short time upon moving to the city last summer. They may have found a challenge in navigating Toronto’s bluegrass scene, but they’ve also found each other.

Mr. Latner introduces the last song of the night and signs off: “We’re from the Internet but we live in Toronto now. Have a good night. Here’s a song about killing your wife.”

The Unseen Strangers play the Smiling Buddha Bar (961 College St.) on June 9.

- The Globe and Mail

Technological innovations are great for all lot of things, but making music isn’t one of them, says The Unseen Strangers fiddler Dan Latner.

Between all the programmable instruments, the electronic beat machines and now, the auto tuner which makes every vocal pitch perfect, the 24-year-old bluegrass player thinks pop music has become a bland, homogenous aural muck without that warming sensation of a human touch.

And to make that point, he points to the recent success he and his mates have had with their second album, Time Travel. (His mates include Adam Shier on guitar, Jeff Rothwell on mandolin, Neil Wianco on banjo and James McCleney on bass).

Recorded by Creaking Tree’s Andrew Collins, Time Travel is more hillbilly rock, a kind of stripped-down country rock that’s been reformatted so that it has more in common with The Grateful Dead than traditional bluegrass of A Man of Constant Sorrow.

“It’s honest, simple and really sincere music. People respond to it clearly.

“It’s straight from the heart, but we don’t want to be nostalgic, or do schtick,” Latner explains. “We in the band didn’t grow up on the farm. We grew up in the city, listening to techno.”

The last resurgence in bluegrass music, which originated with Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys in the 1940s, was in 2000 when the film Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? came out. Since then, interest in old music has grown in popularity, particularly with the hip-hop generation looking for authentic music that tells a story.

“We’ve had people walk away from us because we weren’t traditional enough,” Latner laughs.

Their first album Shoot First, recorded in 2008 when they were still called The Strange Boys, won the 2009 Music Nova Scotia Award for Best Bluegrass Album.

“We’re not trying to be something we aren’t. People shouldn’t come expecting to hear authentic bluegrass like A Man of Constant Sorrow. They’re going to hear us, The Unseen Strangers playing updated bluegrass.”

Ironically, the revival in old music wouldn’t have been possible were it not for the Internet.

“The Internet is keeping everything alive. We live in a retro culture today.

“We’ve got so much to view, we need time to digest it all. We’re looking backward instead of forward into the future. You go to a club and the highlight of the night is when the DJ plays Michael Jackson’s Thriller.

“It’s a handicap if you’re a creative artist.” - The Ottawa Sun

Technological innovations are great for all lot of things, but making music isn’t one of them, says The Unseen Strangers fiddler Dan Latner.

Between all the programmable instruments, the electronic beat machines and now, the auto tuner which makes every vocal pitch perfect, the 24-year-old bluegrass player thinks pop music has become a bland, homogenous aural muck without that warming sensation of a human touch.

And to make that point, he points to the recent success he and his mates have had with their second album, Time Travel. (His mates include Adam Shier on guitar, Jeff Rothwell on mandolin, Neil Wianco on banjo and James McCleney on bass).

Recorded by Creaking Tree’s Andrew Collins, Time Travel is more hillbilly rock, a kind of stripped-down country rock that’s been reformatted so that it has more in common with The Grateful Dead than traditional bluegrass of A Man of Constant Sorrow.

“It’s honest, simple and really sincere music. People respond to it clearly.

“It’s straight from the heart, but we don’t want to be nostalgic, or do schtick,” Latner explains. “We in the band didn’t grow up on the farm. We grew up in the city, listening to techno.”

The last resurgence in bluegrass music, which originated with Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys in the 1940s, was in 2000 when the film Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? came out. Since then, interest in old music has grown in popularity, particularly with the hip-hop generation looking for authentic music that tells a story.

“We’ve had people walk away from us because we weren’t traditional enough,” Latner laughs.

Their first album Shoot First, recorded in 2008 when they were still called The Strange Boys, won the 2009 Music Nova Scotia Award for Best Bluegrass Album.

“We’re not trying to be something we aren’t. People shouldn’t come expecting to hear authentic bluegrass like A Man of Constant Sorrow. They’re going to hear us, The Unseen Strangers playing updated bluegrass.”

Ironically, the revival in old music wouldn’t have been possible were it not for the Internet.

“The Internet is keeping everything alive. We live in a retro culture today.

“We’ve got so much to view, we need time to digest it all. We’re looking backward instead of forward into the future. You go to a club and the highlight of the night is when the DJ plays Michael Jackson’s Thriller.

“It’s a handicap if you’re a creative artist.” - The Ottawa Sun

Local bluegrass sensation The Strangeboys played to a full house at their CD release party on Jan. 17 at Bearly’s House of Blues and Ribs.

The group is composed of musicians Adam Shier (guitar), Dan Latner (fiddle), Neil Wiancko (banjo), Jeff Rothwell (mandolin), and Vincent Pettipas (bass), who recently released their debut CD of eight original songs, Shoot First.

The album was very much a collective effort. Four of the five band members wrote the songs, while guitarist and vocalist Shier acted as producer.

Latner says the album was a do-it–yourself project. The band made an in-house booth where they did all of their recording. Later, Shier mixed and mastered the EP.

“(It was) a big learning experience, and we’re glad we did it that way,” says Latner.

The audience at Bearly’s seemed pretty glad the boys did it too. The sweaty crowd responded by jumping, swaying, step-dancing and boogying to the sounds of bluegrass, Strangeboys style.

The band members seemed to be enjoying themselves and connected with the crowd as they showcased their songs and played long instrumental jam-style interludes. The audience applauded heavily and pressed for two encore songs, and The Strangeboys gladly obliged. The tired, thirsty yet ever-smiling band members eventually had to decline to play a third.

The boys describe their sound as “grassfusion.” Shier explains it as an attempt to use bluegrass as a foundation to explore rock music.

“(It’s) a musical genre soup and bluegrass is like our chicken broth,” he says.

Although bluegrass traditionally conjures images of the American Deep South, with old weathered men talking about love and home in the countryside, the boys realize they cannot claim this identity for themselves.

“We know that we are Canadian kids from Toronto. We have to take the genre and put our own spin on it – (give it) a city approach,” says Latner. “It’s really contemporary – taking a genre and putting a spin on it,” he adds, referring to the recent trend of party DJs remixing and “mashing-up” old favourites.

With a debut CD now released and a recent successful show at the Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto still fresh in fans’ minds, the Strangeboys are on the road to somewhere. They already have plans to work with producer Ryan Roberts, from Wolfville, N.S., on their second album, which they are hoping to have released by next year. The band is also booked to perform at many festivals this summer.

The boys plan to start their own festival that they hope will feature a collection of young acoustic bands from Halifax. The album, Shoot First will be sold at shows and be available on iTunes in the coming months.

“There’s so much more coming,” says Shier. “We all have a lot of energy and we are in this for the long haul.”

http://www.dalgazette.ca/html/module/displaystory/story_id/2768/format/html/displaystory.html - The Gazette (Dalhousie)

Finally! These five gentlemen have been entertaining dancing audienc¬es all over Halifax without an album for far too long. Now you can take The Strangeboys home with you! And honestly, who doesn’t want to?
‘Shoot First’ opens as any blue¬grass album should - with an ex¬ploding banjo riff and an endearing play on words. The lyrics of ‘Silver Hair’ will paint a grin on your face that’s bound to stay there for the remaining eight tracks. Whether you’re laughing, swooning, or just so gosh darn overjoyed that you’re listening to The Strangeboys in your own home, your face will hurt from smiling by the time you’ve listened to Shoot First once through! Over the top? Maybe a little - but you get the idea.
It’s well performed, well written and well recorded bluegrass. It’s new and it’s local and it falls nicely in to the category of what The Strange¬boys themselves call “grassfusion.” As much as I adore the folk rock and the indie rock sound, The Strange¬boys are simply refreshing.
The album features the tradi¬tional ‘love lost and gained’ lyrical themes of bluegrass; but we also see shades of pop culture. ‘The Facemail Waltz’ tells of the hilarious, nearly embarrassing, truths of the Facebook world and its own tales of love lost and gained – and well, mostly made up. Driving instrumental tracks like “Lights (of the Ballin’ Moose)” get your head noddin’, your toes tap¬pin’ and minds-a-reelin’ about how the hell does Neil Wiancko move his fingers that fast.
Throughout the entire album, the traditional bluegrass instrumen¬tation is showcased – speedy quick riffs on guitar, mandolin, stand-up bass, violin, and banjo. Each mem¬ber certainly brings something to the overall sound of the album. We hear each instrument present a strong solo at least twice - and that’s not to mention the vocal harmo¬nies performed by nearly the whole band, perhaps best demonstrated in Baby Don’t Bother.
The album is appropriately pro¬duced as well. It honestly sounds like The Strangeboys stuck a microphone in the middle of the room while they were jamming and released it on an album, which is just what you want, love and expect from these boys - an honest, grassroots representation of all the great things they are capable of as a band. I’m even tempted to say I would have liked to hear some off-mic adlib comments or bits of con¬versation - at the opening and end of tracks, between solos. Just hearing voices that would have happened in session that, in my mind, add to the body of the sound that is bluegrass would have been even more appro¬priate.
Play ‘Shoot First’ on a Saturday morning while the kettle boils; as you’re sitting around the kitchen with friends and beers getting ready to head out for the night; as the soundtrack to a drive around the county, or truly anywhere. Shoot First loans itself to a vast array of environments as it promises good times wherever. The Strangeboys are leading the bluegrass/grassfusion movement and we’re all so pleased to let them.
- The Xavierian Weekly