I’m a fan of Evan AuCoin.
His bands Rugged Shores (now Eastern Echo) and Midnight Watch have been in heavy rotation on my playlists for years, delivering folk-rock and alt-country, respectively. Regardless of the genre, his releases have consistently delivered memorable, affecting melodies, thoughtful lyrics and a timeless quality that keeps me coming back.
Good songs are always welcome, but good stories set to good music are something special.
Everything I’ve enjoyed about those projects is evident in AuCoin’s new solo release, Silhouettes of Stories. It’s a seven-song collection that, as the title suggests, puts storytelling front and centre. I mean, good songs are always welcome, but good stories set to good music, well they are something special — and AuCoin’s Silhouettes of Stories is something special.
The songs cover a range of subjects and characters. “For You” is a reflection on marriage, while “Foxhole” takes us back to wartime and the sacrifices made by Newfoundlanders who left their fishing grounds to join the Royal Newfoundland Regiment. AuCoin brings their experiences to life through lyrics that lend the song a particularly strong sense of place:
There’s no God in this foxhole but the devils on the march,
I wish I could just go home to my trap skiff and the larch.
I love the imagery, and the reminder of the lives behind the history.
The collection closes with “Anymore,” a thoughtful meditation on changing times and the difficulty of making sense of the world around us. “I’m not screaming at the clouds,” AuCoin sings, “I’m just trying to figure out when it was all these behaviours changed.”
Silhouettes of Stories is a solid collection of a songs and stories, that will find their way onto my playlists for years to come.
And that makes me pretty happy.
Get the album now on Bandcamp and wherever you stream your music, and check out the Sihouettes of Stories album release show, too. It’s on Youtube:
