Prairie band brings poetic album to Saskatoon festival

A Manitoba duo is joining Saskatoon's Winterruption festival with a brand new album in tow.

By Grand Central Station, released by Heavy Bell on Jan. 4, is based on the Canadian classic by author Elizabeth Smart: By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept.

That's where singer-songwriter Tom Keenan first discovered it. He read it cover to cover.

"It immediately spoke to me with its monumental emotional roller-coaster of all the different sides of love," Keenan said.

It immediately spoke to me with it's monumental emotional roller-coaster of all the different sides of love.- Tom Keenan of Heavy Bell

Keenan called up Matt Peters of Royal Canoe and instructed him to read the book. The duo went on to write an album full of songs in what Keenan calls "rapid succession."

Eight years later, it's fresh to many ears and the pair are still grateful for the revelation.

"It was such an inspirational experience to feel something happen so quickly," said Peters. "I think we both feel very indebted to the words and the emotion of the words for that."

In her early twenties, Smart was reading poetry by British writer George Barker and fell madly in love with him through his writing. The tumultuous affair that followed led to the birth of four children.

Peters said the album is loaded with lyrics and images from Smart that the duo wishes they thought of themselves.

"The narrative aspect isn't as important to us as the vibrant, beautiful, intense imagery which she uses to express her love for this man," Peters said. "Through that...the song writing just came so quickly."

The duo will perform songs from the album live in Saskatoon on Jan. 19 at the Cosmo Senior Centre. Saskatoon's Rachel Fowlie Neufeld is set to open the show at 8 p.m.