ARTIST.....: 100 Mile House TITLE......: Wait With Me LABEL......: 100 Mile House GENRE......: Folk RIP DATE...: 2020-04-01 RETAIL DATE: 2016-10-17 RUNTIME....: 39:30 SIZE.......: 93,29 MB QUALITY....: 320Kbps 44.1kHz ENCODER/CODEC: LAME - MP3 (MPEG-2 AUDIO LAYER 3) URL........: https://play.google.com/store/music/album/100_mile_house_Wait_With_Me?id=Bdp4vsxem5zk3qcwxqewmgauuxm Track List: 01. Last Call 3:43 02. Wait With Me 3:30 03. Show Me A Sign 3:58 04. Left Unattended 0:24 05. My Love 3:33 06. Just Because 3:41 07. Rosalita 4:03 08. We Built This Road 3:13 09. Breakfast TV 4:04 10. The First Time 2:54 11. Arrival 0:31 12. London 2:33 13. Running Back To You 3:23 Release Notes: Repack for "100_Mile_House-Wait_With_Me-WEB-2016-BEAMS" because of "wrong year". Sorry for that. Released to great acclaim in the U.S and their homeland of Canada in 2013 this exceptional album of folksy, acoustic roots music has only just been released in Europe, so thankfully we Europeans can now benefit from the beautiful, if deceptively mellow, music made by 100 Mile House. This is the third and to my mind the best album released by this tremendously talented trio. The previous two were very good and well worth seeking out but this one really ups the ante by several notches. The trio consists of husband and wife team Peter Stone and Denise MacKay, along with multi instrumentalist Scott Zubot. Denise added her beautiful vocals to one of the best albums of 2013. That was Sean Burns æCold Beans and Broken EggsÆ and as I said in that review she added far more than just pleasant harmonies. Albums such as this, where the instrumentation is acoustic, the overall sound mellow and the vocals so exceptional, can sometimes sound a little twee. Not so with this beautiful album. There is always an edginess to the arrangements and the song writing is of such quality that the main impression is of this trioÆs quite stunning musical abilities. There is a lovely feeling of intimacy that pervades the whole of the album, partly due to the mellow sound but also thanks to the exceptional vocal blend between Peter Stone and Denise MacKay. Of the thirteen songs on this self produced album eleven were written by Stone and MacKay, with the other two, which are very short but high quality fiddle breaks, coming from the pen of Scott Zubot. The album opens with Peters lead vocal on Last Call. It contains a nice easy going drum sound and the lovely light melodic sound of a mandolin and acoustic guitar aided and abetted by DeniseÆ harmonies, giving a strong indication of what follows on this disc. Not that everything is the same. Far from it! Whilst the tempoÆs on these tremendous songs never gets above an easy going mid tempo, the variety of textures and melodies, allied to the changing between male and female lead vocals brings a diversity to proceedings. The subtle changes in varied if generally sparse instrumentation adds to the mix and of course, whilst the album sound can be described as gentle, the impact of some of the stories means it is anything but, and within those slow to mid tempoÆs there is plenty of space for varied speeds. Wait With Me, the edgy title track, is a study in the confused state that the most basic of human emotions can visit upon us. There is a lovely tuneful electric guitar and gorgeous ghostly fiddle on a lovely duet that shows the roller coaster of emotions that can be found in a feeling of guilt! Whether it is justified is shown to be a matter of opinion. Show Me A Sign is an excellent sad, highly descriptive tale of a couple fighting to recover from hard times, trying against all the odds to exhibit a little optimism. This slightly harrowing tale is supported by gentle acoustic guitar and haunting fiddle with Peter on lead vocal and DeniseÆ lovely harmonies on this slow moody evocative song. On My Love, DeniseÆs lovely vocals start the song at a really slow tempo before suddenly upping the pace to an easy mid tempo, the haunting fiddle and acoustic guitar and DeniseÆs expressive vocals expressing a tale of deceit and deep feelings of guilt. Rosalita is a lovely mid tempo song on which the pace is set by the snare and nice tuneful piano, with Peter on lead vocal and Denise on harmony again on the tale of a man abandoned by a lover that he had been warned about but wouldnÆt or couldnÆt heed the warning. Finally, Breakfast T.V is a really good song about reminiscences and what we all leave behind. Peter is again on lead vocal and the chiming guitar, occasional eerie fiddle and the always excellent percussion emphasis the quality. This tremendous album contains songs that often delve into the variety of emotions that are all too frequently ignored but sum up the human condition, all done in a way that few others can match. They are emotions that we have all felt at times but this trio seem to be able to get into the meat of the subject without going over the top with the darkness, yet retaining the ability to not undersell the sometimes harrowing feelings. The acclaim that the album received on the North American continent is definitely not misplaced or exaggerated. A gorgeous, often thought provoking album that if the masses will give it a chance will win them many new fans!