Fresh upbeat sound from young group creates new Appalachian Mountain music with an alt-country beat

Harlan Pepper, Great Lakes video

Tom Wilson, of Blackie and the Rodeo Kings, shared the Great Lakes video on Facebook a few months ago.

Harlan Pepper of Hamilton, Ontario perform an odd, lighthearted and appealing blend of roots, country, rock and folk music.

I was immediately intrigued. Where did these young guys get the updated old sound?

Only when Tom sent me the CD Young and Old did I discover that the bass player Thompson Wilson was Tom’s son. Nice to have your dad promote your music eh?

For a first CD, this is amazing music.

The 4 boys – Thompson (bass, vocals), Dan Edmonds (banjo, keys, vocals) Marlon Nicolle (drums, vocals) and Jimmy Hayes (guitar, pedal steel, harmonica) were just out of high school when they won $3,000 recording studio prize in a local jam contest.  

Thompson entered the contest with the video his dad, Tom Wilson, shot of their song Great Lakes. The video was shot at a rented cabin in the Alleghenies May 2009.

Great Lakes is the essence of the group, or at least of what I find the most appealing.

The charismatic Dan Edmonds, who penned five of the songs on the CD, looks like a young Bob Dylan with his nose, curly tousled hair and wry sense of humor.  Great Lakes has fun lyrics with easy rhymes that tickle your funny bone – “man …said I’m inferior didn’t like that… I went to Lake Superior.”

Where did these young guys get the sound? It’s like The Greenbriar Boys came back all hip, modern with a sense of humor.

The banjo playing is slight and perfect for the song. I was really impressed by the clean and clear acoustic lead guitar by Jimmy Hayes. It’s not the picking but his timing. It takes years to play that well.

Great Lakes is much more polished on the CD which is what happens when talent gets shaped in a good studio.

The $3,000 prize was more of a down payment than the final cost of their CD. However, by working and playing every gig they could get, often with Tom and his other group Lee Harvey Osmond, they scratched together enough for this CD.

The CD recording at Vibewrangler Studio is exceptionally clear and dynamic. On the alt-country-roots songs, the definition of the players and instruments is beyond most of what is being produced today. The songs sound ambient and right there in the room.

The boys had help from Tom Wilson and his musical friends like Ray Farrugia. Tom’s deep voice can be heard on background vocals in a few songs.

“That’s why it’s called Young and Old,” Nicolle says with a laugh. “Everybody at our shows is either under 18 or over 50.” (Hamilton Spectator)

I like most of the CD with the exception of the grungy rock material. It’s not fresh and innovative like the alt-country-roots material. If Harlan Pepper likes to rock out – and who doesn’t – it belongs on another CD.

After Great Lakes, my favourite cut is Reefer which has its own video shot on the street in what appears to be Hamilton. The tale of woe from smoking too much of the weed has a bone weary Appalachian sound with the same acoustic lead and banjo playing that endears Great Lakes to me.

Let’s hope the boys hunker down and create enough original material for another CD.

Harlan Pepper website. You can buy their music from Maple Music.