Product Description?Song And Dance Man?, the title track from Jason Collett?s sixth full-length album, finds the iconic singer-songwriter back at centre stage, with three-minutes-and-change and a story to sing. Featuring the bright production touch of Bahamas? Afie Jurvanen, ?Song And Dance Man? covers the trials and triumphs of the modern musician with poignant poetry:
If you can tweet something brilliant, you got a marketing plan
Song And Dance Man?s thirteen songs bear the wit and melody of classic Jason Collett: contemplative reflections on getting older, backed with an affinity for freewheeling 70s dance music. The album?s conspiring themes of love & loneliness, sun & shadows, are buoyed by its soaring sound. Each song rises into an easy, spacious groove, lead by Jason?s languid melodies and Afie?s sun-drunk bass.
?There?s a cool economy to Afie?s approach that lets the record breathe and allows it to say more with less, something I worked hard at hardly working at in writing the songs,? says Collett. ?Keeping a light touch, keeping it short.?
Having spent the years since 2012?s Reckon finding himself further engaged in the growing success of his Basement Revue concert series ? a cross-pollinating musical & literary mash-up of Canada?s premiere contemporary artists ? the Toronto indie-troubadour describes this record as a liberating process distilled in a stretch of deep domestic reverie.
"I like writing songs and for the first time in my life I felt no rush to hustle them or myself out the door,? says Collett. ?I let some dust settle, some weeds grow, putter about at home??
The result is a dynamic addition to a strong body of work. Song And Dance Man may be Jason Collett?s finest effort yet ? back in the spotlight, more comfortable than ever in the guise of entertainer:
You got to do what you can when you?re a Song And Dance Man.
Song And Dance Man was recorded in spring 2015 with long-time collaborators drummer/engineer Don Kerr (at his Rooster Studio), Christine Bougie on guitar & lap steel, Zeus? Neil Quinn on backing vocals, and Afie holding it down on the bass, sometimes two.