The Troubs play a hometown gig this Friday (Dec. 9th) at Hugh’s Room in Toronto!
Rik and Dave will be featuring some material from their brand new studio CD, reCOVERy Room 9 – nine somewhat unexpected and startling cover songs, performed as an acoustic duo and captured in the friendly research lab/hothouse environment of Dave Dunlop’s ‘Room 9’ studio.
The tune stack includes:
- I Hear You Knockin’
- Message In a Bottle
- he Boys of Summer
- Superstition
- She’s Always a Woman
- Born to Run
- I’ve Just Seen a Face
- Have a Little Faith In Me
- The Galaxy Song
Rik says “We’re hoping that people will find this work surprising and entertaining. We’re taking some chances with the repertoire, which is a lot of fun. But this material, in an acoustic duo context, is also extremely challenging, and we know some folks might take umbrage with us reworking sacred, definitive masterworks. But these are songs that we love, too, and we’re paying our respects, and just offering our best.”
The Troubs writing/recording project arose in 2006 from the public response to Rik‘s instrumental duo performances together with Dave during Emmett’s concert gigs. The material on the first album centered on an acoustic roots showcase for serious guitar lovers. The follow-up came a year later, with LIVE at Hugh’s Room, a recording of a set captured in the fabled Toronto concert club on Wednesday December 13, 2006.
Emmett (of Canadian rock band Triumph) and Dunlop (from the rock band Full Nine) first played together during a master class session at the National Summer Guitar Workshop in 1990. The latest ‘reCOVERy Room 9’ collection features Emmett on lead vocals and guitar, while Dunlop expands on his role of lead guitarist and producer.
The Dec. 9 Hugh’s Room date will follow on the heels of a mini-tour for the duo in New England and the eastern seaboard, where they will conclude the run with the honor of two nights at the legendary Iridium nightclub in New York, accompanied by the Les Paul Trio on a Monday night – the house gig that Lester made famous. The prolific and industrious Emmett still books around a dozen acoustic solo or duo weekends a year, an equal number of electric rock band shows, as well as finishing off his commitment to the Juno-nominated PRO Trio (with Pavlo and Oscar Lopez) with a dozen tour dates back in early 2011. He also maintains a pace of at least one new album every year, and expects two more new solo albums to show up in early 2012.