yesterday's album review was the first on my list that makes me think back to my days working on the sweet corn farm. if cake's comfort eagle can be considered a cornpicking album, then five days in july would be like a greatest hits.
early in my years at rouge river farms (image above is of a corn field at sunset, btw), someone found a cassette tape of this album buried under a pile of tim hortons coffee cups in one of the field trucks. fortunately it still worked, and even more surprising, so did the tape deck in the truck. it wasn't long before many of us on the crew had purchased this album for our own collections and even learned how to play a few of the songs on our guitars.
this album speaks to me on many levels. of course it reminds me of hard work and summer fun. but i also connect to it because blue rodeo is a classic canadian band (a perfect fit for independence day, right?). the musical style ranges from country, to blues, to folk, to rock - always with clean vocals, deep harmonies, and wonderfully poetic lyrics. the album even features a young sara mclachlan appearing on guest vocals on a few tracks.
from the opening notes that the harmonica plays on the first track (the somewhat strangely titled "five days in may"), i find myself singing along and remembering great times with friends - whether we were hard at work, or lounging by the lake at the cottage. by far one of my favorite albums of all time. to see my friend mike's much more thorough review of this album, click here.
1. u2 - the joshua tree
2. dave matthews band - crash
3. cake - comfort eagle
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