LeE HARVeY OsMOND

"This album lets listeners walk on the wild side without having to touch it personally and that kind of escapism is addictive. It also begs for at least one more repeat performance."

Full article at http://www.groundcontrolmag.com/detail/3/1488/ - Ground Control

"A Quiet Evil — perfectly titled, by the way — would be equally appropriate in a hammock on a summer afternoon or in an opium den at four in the morning. No matter which one of those is your vice, Wilson helps make it feel right."

- Full article at http://www.ffwdweekly.com/article/music/cd-reviews/lee-harvey-osmond-a-quiet-evil-3949/ - FFWD Weekly

Folk club brings Lee Harvey to town

Posted By Reagen Sulewski

Posted 20 days ago

Tom Wilson may be known for great big rock and blues songs with his bands Junkhouse and Blackie and the Rodeo Kings, but his latest project has him looking in a less showy direction.

Wilson brings LeE HARVeY OsMOND to the Cochrane RancheHouse on Nov. 27 as part of the Cochrane Valley Folk Club, which sees him embracing a more stripped down sound, venturing into what he calls "acid-folk".

That terms comes out, he said, "mainly because it's folk music that has bottom end, it's folk music that's written for the lower part of your body," said Wilson. "There's less helicopter dancing and more hip movement."

The genesis of the project came from a collaboration with Michael Timmins of Cowboys Junkies, writing a song for a project about the assassination of JFK. Wilson resurrected the band's name from a solo project earlier in his career when he was taking a break from Junkhouse, and the name and the style suited this project well.

Originally planned for only one song, it quickly grew into a full-fledged group.

"By nine songs, it was, 'I guess we're making a Lee Harvey Osmond record,'" he said.

That easy songwriting approach has let Wilson and his collaborators, which include several members of Cowboy Junkies and The Skydiggers, create more story-driven music, without flashy accompaniment, something he says is missing from a lot of folk music these days.

"In country music and folk music, people have gotten away from telling stories about their neighbourhoods. They call it dark, but we all have an interest in making a little hole in the wall and seeing through the other side," Wilson said.

What he's trying to create is a familiar environment where stories are shared.

"I think the most important songs that we right are often heard around a kitchen table, if we have that opportunity. Sometimes over alcohol, sometimes just over coffee. That's where the meat of songs are and where people communicate," said Wilson.

With songs about felons and dead presidents and native land rights, the band's songs can become quite brooding, but the spare arrangements let the songs breathe. That's very deliberate, Wilson said.

"The main characteristic we were looking for to bring people into this record were people who didn't show off," he said.

He's got nothing against virtuosos, he said, however, "It's just for these songs we really wanted the songs to speak and for the people who play them to play around the groove of what we're creating."

Although he considers LeE HARVeY OsMOND to be a true collective, for this tour, Wilson is the guy representing the band, as other members are busy on their own tours, though it's a role he welcomes.

"I'm kind of the corner stone for working this record live and I'm happy to have that job," Wilson said.

Doors open for the show at 7:30 p.m., with the show starting at 8 p.m. Tickets are $22, and available at Cochrane Coffee Traders or online at www.cochranevalleyfolkclub.com.

Article ID# 2192753
- Cochrane Times, Alberta, CA

http://www.paris-move.com/zik-cd-dedicated.php?id=372 - Paris On The Move

http://blurt-online.com/reviews/view/1642/

Let's see here... released on the Cowboy Junkies' own label; produced and recorded by the CJ's Michael Timmins; features both Michael and sister Margo, with the other members of the Junkies making guest appearances; includes a cover of an obscure CJ tune, "Angels In the Wilderness"; even mastered by the Junkies' longtime cohort Peter J. Moore; must be a Cowboy Junkies side project, right?

Not exactly. LeE HARVeY OsMOND is the brainchild of Tom Wilson, from Blackie & the Rodeo Kings, who conceived of the project as a kind of Canadian musical collective - hence the involvement of the Timminses et al, not to mention fellow Rodeo King Colin Linden, members of the Skydiggers and a handful of others. Wilson wrote or co-wrote most of the material and sings and plays guitar, so it's clearly his baby, although as the notes above suggest, Cowboy Junkies fans and band trainspotters will find much about A Quiet Evil to cheer. In fact, several tunes have a familiar opiated twang and nocturnal ambiance: the spookywoozycool "Blade of Grass," with its hushed vocal and backwards guitar swirl; the quietly intense, fuzztone-flecked blooze of "Summer Girl"; and of course pedal steel/B3-powered weeper "You Drove Me Crazy (Now I'm Gonna Stay That Way)" - how's that for a great song title - which features Wilson and Margo Timmins in classic country duet mode.

All that aside, A Quiet Evil ultimately lives up to its titular suggestion; there's an understated quality here barely masking a lurking sense of desperation and malevolence. From the simmering "Lucifer's Blues" (check Wilson's part-spoken, part-sung vocal, which with his deep voice suggests a cross between Chuck Prophet and Dave Alvin) to a searing, edge-of-psychosis cover of Lou Reed's "I Can't Stand It," the record's steeped in a kind of gothic noir ambiance. This is only made all the more unsettling by the demented cover art, a Satanic-looking dog/rabbit mutant with sharp fangs and jutting phallus. And what's up with the upper/lower case lettering scheme of the band name? Is there some kind of subliminal messaging going on?

Wilson may or may not have spent time in that part of Canada where the weird sunlight schedule has been known to drive folks a little bit crazy, but on the evidence of this album, he's definitely a lotta bit twisted, so beware. Twisted in a good way, of course...

Standout Tracks: "Queen Bee," "Blade of Grass," "Angel In the Wilderness," "I Can't Stand It" FRED MILLS

- Blurt-online.com