al tuck
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Music
The best kept secret in music
Press
This band has no press
Discography
arhoolie (murderecords-universal 1994)
brave last days (murderecords-universal 1994)
new high road of song (brobdingnagian 2000)
my blues away (independent 2005)
- featured nationally on cbc radio, charted on college radio - samples available through link on website.
Photos
Feeling a bit camera shy
Bio
first emerged to the public eye in the mid-90's, quickly releasing 2 critically-acclaimed albums (arhoolie, brave last days) on halifax's indie label murderecords. soon, labelmates sloan, jale, thrush hermit & hardship post were being signed to more major record deals elsewhere. tuck's more acoustical, older-traditional, all-about-the-song stylism did not meet with the same welcome in the then-grungy music industry as that of his pedal-packing peers and al had to continue his career somewhere 'under the radar' until in the year 2000, when upstart label brobdingnagian released a new collection of al tuck songs entitled 'new high road of song'. at this point al's touring activities were extended beyond canada to the uk, which he toured with new label-mates the guthries.
since then he has pursued a life akin to that of an old-time solo bluesman, going where his limited fame takes him, a sort of canadian townes van zandt figure. a house fire destroyed all of his possessions, except an acoustic guitar, in 2003 and it took some time for him to assemble his latest studio effort, 'my blues away', released in 2005. now that the prevailing musical climate seems more hospitable to his long-held, doggedly-pursued artistic agenda, al tuck is poised for much wider recognition, sporting a staggering backlog of strong, unreleased material that could fill 7 long-playing albums. an ahead-of-his time original, whose songwriting is considered by critics and peers to be state of the art , tuck has continued performing small-scale shows without any industry affiliation or assistance. how long this will last is anyone's guess.
Links