Playing a show to open for a musician is a first for Whitehorse bornand-raised Patrick Hamilton.
Hamilton says, “I’ve been a professional musician since I was 18,” and he means that he’s been very involved in multiple music projects since that time.
He’s a member of the band Soda Pony, and he co-owns Hamilton Guitars with his dad, Bob. He’s also the sound guy for Arts in the Park. Hamilton says the set he’ll play on Friday is a side project. He has a solo garage-music-style, unrehearsed act.
He doesn’t make a set list, and he leaves himself open to try new things, as the mood strikes. Like, he might be inspired to do a song from the ‘20s, garage-rock-style, in the middle of the set. It’s an act that will never be recorded, he says.
He’s opening for Pat LePoidevin, who’s coming back to Whitehorse to re-release a fiveyear-old album on vinyl. Moonwolves was LePoidevin’s second album — it came into being in the summertime, when “we were getting to the North.”
LePoidevin went to Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick. He says that town, on the opposite end of Canada, has weird connections and similarities to Dawson City. It has to do with the size of the communities — small — as well as the art and music that comes out of them.
He traveled to Dawson in 2010 with Matt Sarty, who still lives in Dodge, and performed a showcase at the Dawson City Music Festival. LePoidevin stayed for the summer and produced Moonwolves. And, although the album was born of the summer, he says it’s something to listen to in the wintertime, in front of a fire. “The identity of the album belongs in the North.”
The intimacy of the album is a logical fit for a vinyl record, which LePoidevin says, “allows you to get a lot closer to songs. “To be able to hold something that size, and watch it play — it really is a new experience. “It’s like having a book.”
He’s just interested in having his music out to people in a nice medium.
Headless Owl Records, a Whitehorse-based label owned by Andrew Stratis, is pressing a limited number of Moonwolves records. Each album will come with a digital download.
Pat LePoidevin, preceded by Patrick Hamilton, will play an album re-release show at the Old Fire Hall on Friday, July 3. Tickets are available at Midnight Sun Coffee. Email [email protected] for more information.
