Fraser

Here is something different. Here is where the guts and dust of roots music meet evocative poetics; where the sweat of craftsmanship meets art. Fraser's music can best be understood as the place where two roads collide. One road, born in the empty spaces of rural Canada, shaped by landscape, cracked by northern winters and faded summers, runs into the sound, colour and clamour of an urban market street.

Growing up in the farmland of Ontario, Fraser spent summers cutting trees with a chainsaw, some climbing ropes and a white pickup truck from the Nineties, and winters studying English Literature at school in the city. In 2006 he took a few days off to record The January Project with engineer Glen Teeple at the Music Room in rural Ontario. Fraser moved 1000 copies of the album playing occasional local shows over the next two years while finishing his degree and keeping his tree company running.

In the autumn of 2008, Fraser returned to the Music Room and laid down the tracks for House on a Hill. The songs stretch from dusty folk to laid-back Americana rock to beautifully crafted love songs. The album establishes him first as a songwriter who can meld the rawness of indie folk music with an easy, poetic style of writing that evokes narrative and image -- it secondly casts him as an un-duplicable singer backed by creative, minimalist work on the guitar and piano. Drummer Brad Marsh and bassist Adam Cake lay a percussive foundation that moves from the consistent drive of an old diesel engine to the laid back groove of an urban cafe.

A month after releasing the album in Canada, Fraser and his wife, Bailey, backpacked across England, France, and Switzerland. He played almost twenty shows in four weeks in clubs, bars, cafes, and pubs, and captured the interest of musicians, promoters and press, music fans, and even locals who had just shown up to drink. Across Canada and Europe, Fraser has become a soundtrack for driving down a dirt road, renovating a house, sharing a bottle of wine with friends and...