Al Tuck | |
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Background information | |
Birth name | Alan Layton Tuck |
Born | Summerside, Prince Edward Island, Canada | December 21, 1966
Origin | Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada |
Genres | Folk rock, indie rock |
Occupation | Singer-songwriter |
Instrument(s) | Vocals, guitar |
Years active | 1984 –present |
Labels | Murderecords, Brobdingnagian, Youth Club |
Website | altuck |
Al Tuck (born December 23, 1966), is a Canadian songwriter and folksinger from Prince Edward Island who has spent much of his career based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. [1]
Tuck was born in Summerside, Prince Edward Island, the son of editorial cartoonist and Anglican cleric Canon Robert Tuck. Tuck attended the University of King's College in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Tuck's career started when he began appearing in Halifax coffeehouses and college pubs, either doing solo performances or with his first couple of bands, such as The Columbia Recording Artists, in the early-to-mid 80s, and then The Bluegrass Lawnmower, which existed from 1988 until 1992. [2] [3] Bluegrass Lawnmower received an East Coast Music Award nomination for "Unrecorded Artist Of The Year" in 1991. [4]
Tucked formed the quartet of Al Tuck and No Action in 1993, with a "revolving cast of musicians", [5] [6] [7] after the dissolution of Bluegrass Lawnmower, and with increased attention on the burgeoning Halifax independent music scene in the early 1990s.
By 1994, the band dropped down to a trio, with Tracy Stevens on bass, and Brock Caldwell on drums. [5] This led Tuck to a recording deal with Sloan's Murderecords, [8] which released his first two LPs: Arhoolie, [9] and Brave Last Days, [10] both in 1994. That same year he made an appearance at Edgefest. [11] He also appeared on a festival bill with Soundgarden and Nine Inch Nails at Molson Park in Barrie, Ontario, playing on the CFNY-FM 'Nu Music Sidestage' alongside treble charger, The Killjoys (Canadian band) and other acts. [12]
During his tenure on Murderecords, a "documentary" short film was shot and produced by Colin MacKenzie (Murderecords, Cinnamon Toast Records) on Tuck, in 1995. [13]
Tuck received another East Coast Music Award nomination for "Male Recording Of The Year" in 1996. [14]
Tuck released Food for the Moon in 2009. [15] In a review, Now magazine wrote, "Tuck's voice – thin, rough-hewn, distinct – reaches out intimately, and his songwriting never drops beneath top-shelf." [16]
In 2010, Tuck was the voice of Milkman Cat in the Spike Jonze-produced animated short, Higglety-Pigglety Pop!. [17]
"Under Your Shadow" followed in 2011 under the Maple Music label. The album appeared on the !earshot Campus and Community National Top 50 Albums chart in January 2012. [18]
In June 2013, Tuck's studio album Stranger at the Wake was longlisted for the 2013 Polaris Music Prize. Fair Country, which is a mix of original songs, co-written with poet Alex Rettie, and covers, was released digitally in 2015 and then in CD format in 2016.
December 2016 saw release of a tribute album, Behind That Big Red Curtain, [19] featuring 15 of Tuck's songs, performed by 15 of his musical friends, and produced by Adam Gallant and Andrew Murray of Charlottetown, PEI.
Two of these songs, "In the Days When the People Were Small and Few" and "Behind that Big Red Curtain", were not previously recorded by Tuck. [20]
Tuck previously dated Catriona Sturton, then of Plumtree, during the late 90s, into the 2000s. [21]
Tuck was formerly married (and divorced in 2010) to singer Catherine MacLellan, [15] daughter of renowned P.E.I. songwriter Gene MacLellan. They have one daughter, Isabel. [22]
Murderecords is an independent record label that releases the music of the Canadian rock band Sloan. Originally formed in 1992 to produce just the records of that band, it later released work of other bands including Eric's Trip, The Hardship Post, Al Tuck, Stinkin' Rich, Hip Club Groove, The Inbreds, Thrush Hermit, and The Super Friendz, and was Canada's best-known indie label in the 1990s. Later, the roster was stripped bare, and released Sloan albums exclusively for nearly a decade. In 2008, however, albums by Will Currie and the Country French and Pony Da Look were released by the label.
Eric's Trip is a Canadian indie rock band from Moncton, New Brunswick. Eric's Trip achieved prominence as the first Canadian band to be signed to Seattle's flagship grunge label Sub Pop in the early 1990s.
Jale was a Canadian alternative rock band from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Contemporaries of Sloan and The Super Friendz, they formed in 1992 and was part of the Halifax Pop Explosion scene in the 1990s. They released three records as a band before disbanding in 1996.
Roselea Arbana "Rose" Maddox was an American country singer-songwriter and fiddle player, who was the lead singer with the Maddox Brothers and Rose before a successful solo career. Her musical styles blended hillbilly music, rockabilly and gospel. She was noted for her "reputation as a lusty firebrand", and her "colorful Western costumes"; she was one of the earliest clients of Hollywood tailor, Nathan Turk.
Thrush Hermit was a Canadian alternative rock band active in the 1990s, known for their "highly energetic, humorous, and unpredictable performances," as quoted by Vice News.
Charles Douglas Musselwhite is an American blues harmonica player and bandleader who came to prominence, along with Mike Bloomfield, Paul Butterfield, and Elvin Bishop, as a pivotal figure in helping to revive the Chicago Blues movement of the 1960s. He has often been identified as a "white bluesman".
"Blue Moon of Kentucky" is a waltz written in 1945 by bluegrass musician Bill Monroe and recorded by his band, the Blue Grass Boys. Some think the origins may trace back to "Roll Along, Kentucky Moon", a similar waltz recorded 20 years prior by Jimmie Rodgers. The song has since been recorded by many artists, including Elvis Presley and Paul McCartney. The song is the official bluegrass song of Kentucky.
The Hardship Post was a Canadian alternative rock band, that formed in St. John’s, Newfoundland in 1992 and moved to Halifax, Nova Scotia, during the Halifax Pop Explosion of the early 1990s.
Arhoolie Records is an American small independent record label that was run by Chris Strachwitz and is based in El Cerrito, California, United States The label was founded by Strachwitz in 1960 as a way for him to record and produce music by previously obscure "down-home blues" artists such as Lightnin' Hopkins, Snooks Eaglin, and Bill Gaither. Strachwitz despised most commercial music as mouse music. Arhoolie still publishes blues and folk music, Tejano music including Lydia Mendoza, Los Alegres de Terán, Flaco Jiménez, regional Mexican music, cajun, zydeco, and bluegrass.
Richard K. "Dick" Spottswood is an American musicologist and author from Maryland, United States who has catalogued and been responsible for the reissue of many thousands of recordings of vernacular music in the United States.
Cinnamon Toast Records was a record label from Halifax, Nova Scotia. It was inspired by the American label Simple Machines and was run by Walter Forsyth, Lee Ann Gillan, Shawn Duggan, Colin MacKenzie, Robert Jeans and Miroslav Wiesner. Born out of an influx of local alternative music being created in Halifax during the early 1990s, Cinnamon Toast Records released a number of limited 7-inch singles, each in a different colour. Cinnamon Toast Records' first single was a 7-inch pressing of the Halifax band Bubaiskull in 1992. Other notable releases are the first Jale single and a split pressing of Sloan and Eric's Trip in 1993, a Rebecca West CD in 1995, as well as a number of full length Plumtree CDs.
John Jackson was an American Piedmont blues musician. Music was not his primary activity until his accidental "discovery" by the folklorist Chuck Perdue in the 1960s. Jackson had effectively given up playing in his community in 1949.
Jenn Grant is a Canadian folk pop singer-songwriter based in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Saddle River String Band is a Canadian bluegrass quartet, with influences of blues and folk from Summerside, Prince Edward Island, Canada. Their sound derives from their guitar/banjo/mandolin/double bass set up and from their insistence on performing into a single condenser microphone like earlier bluegrass & folk acts.
Catriona Sturton is an Ottawa, Ontario–based singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. She has had a prolific career, performing in bands such as Plumtree and collaborating with artists like Joel Plaskett, Al Tuck, the late Dutchy Mason, the Mighty Popo and members of Sloan and Blue Rodeo.
The East Coast Music Association (ECMA) is a non-profit association purposed towards supporting the music industry in the Canadian east coast, i.e., Atlantic Canada. The ECMA hosts the annual East Coast Music Awards festival.
Catherine MacLellan is a Canadian folk singer-songwriter, based in Prince Edward Island.
Cedric Watson is an American musician. He has been nominated four times for Grammy Awards.
Robbie MacNeill is a guitarist and singer-songwriter who was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. He attended Queen Elizabeth High School and studied engineering at Dalhousie University for two years, before moving to Toronto to work as a surveyor in 1964. In the late sixties and early 70's he arranged, conducted and performed with The Privateers, billed as 'Eastern Canada's Only Professional Fork Chorus'. He went on to work with a number of other artists, and released his own album 'Pieces' in 1984.
Matthew George Grimson was a Canadian musician from Halifax, Nova Scotia. Although he released albums locally in small quantities and never became widely known outside of Halifax in his lifetime, he came to wider attention in 2020 with the release of the posthumous album Prize for Writing.