Prince Edward Island, on Canada’s eastern seaboard, is a hotbed of musical talent, with a revolving community of extremely talented musicians who are helping to preserve the Celtic/folk traditions of the area while advancing the genre’s boundaries by infusing them with elements of pop, swing and country. One such is the formidable group The East Pointers, formed in 2014 by Tim Chaisson (fiddle and vocal), Koady Chaisson (banjo), and their cousin Jake Charron (guitar/keyboards), one of the most exciting live bands in the genre.
Tim Chaisson had already made something of a name for himself as singer-songwriter of some ability, having been a member of the band Kindle in his early teens and joining with others to create Morning Fold in 2008 (when he was just 22). A well-received pop-rock album “Broken Hearted Beat” was released in 2009 before he went solo to explore his more folksy roots and delivered two excellent singer-songwriter albums, “The Other Side” (2012) and “Lost in Light” (2015), two mature introspective albums that explored heartbreak and grief from his own and others’ experiences.
The creation of The East Pointers upped his profile as, despite a number of music award nominations (and wins) from, for example, the East Coast Music Association and Music Prince Edward Island, the debut album “Secret Victory” in late 2015 won a Canadian Juno Award for Traditional Roots Album of the Year in 2017 (equivalent to a Grammy in Canada) and in the following year the follow-up “What We Leave Behind” (2017) was nominated for the same award. These albums were a return to the hard-core Celtic folk roots and, on each album, comprised a majority of predominantly fiery instrumentals led either by Koady’s scintillating and pounding banjo or Tim’s sweeping fiddle, underscored by multi-instrumentalist Charron on acoustic guitar. The first album kicks off with a foot-tapping jig of the title track and again on the roof-raising ‘Meals for Maurice’; many of the instrumentals are of elaborate complexity that involves subtle, and not-so-subtle, changes of pace. The three vocal tracks are also uniformly excellent, the best of which ‘Work That Way‘, has Tim’s engaging, emotive voice over a banjo riff and a great bass line. There are some wonderful familial harmonies, too.
The sophomore album was a step up as the group developed more complicated arrangements and additional instrumentation from Charron on electric guitar, bass, piano, and keys. Gordie Sampson, the producer of the album, added background guitar and keys. Without in any way abandoning their fundamental roots, they were adding much more depth to their sound, with pop and even rock sensibilities. The tunes were uniformly engaging yet again, a couple more vocal tracks including the wonderful ‘82 Fires’, about the Australian forest fires that were happening as the group performed in Tasmania “Darkened clouds rolling over the valley sparked the resting flame / Earth has come to claim her country, screaming out for rain”; and ‘John Wallace’, about a historical shipwreck. The standout instrumental (one of 6) is probably ‘Tanglewood’ with its complicated multi-instrumental arrangement.
In 2019 “Yours to Break” continued pushing the boundaries of East Coast folk music but if you like a mix of foot-stomping, crowd-pleasing instrumentals (‘Country Cable‘ has a great rumbling bass riff, both acoustic and electric guitars, keyboards and fiddle all battling for domination) and slow ballads (‘SOS‘, the closing piano-driven track, is simply gorgeous), with Tim’s fine introspective songs (the wistful ‘Elmira’ has lovely electric guitar behind a song about loss and keeping a connection), then you would be well satisfied with this album. As with the earlier albums, it received critical acclaim for its melding of base roots music with pop-infused production.
Banjoist Koady died suddenly in early 2022 from a previously unknown health condition. As the driving force behind the band (according to Charron, “We all were in it together, but a lot of the success we had is because of Koad’s ambition”), his death left a great hole, especially as he had successfully fought his demons (substance abuse and mental health issues) as the band began to develop their signature sound. Nevertheless, after seven months, the remaining two members of the band decided to carry on and released a well-received EP “House of Dreams”, featuring songs written with Koady during the pandemic and featuring him on banjo but also tenor guitar and bass synth. The EP is a dynamic further step forward with probably a few more pop sensibilities than previously, but it found favour and was nominated for Contemporary Roots Recording of the Year (2023). The shadow of Koady Chaisson is all over the EP, with particularly poignant tracks like ‘I saw your Ghost’ and ‘Stronger Than You Know’, but the thumping banjo is largely missing on what is nevertheless an outstanding release, with gorgeous melodies, inspired writing and fabulous harmonies.
And so, on to 2024 and 2025, as the duo toured the world with their exhilarating live performances still intact but with the exquisite banjo of Koady missing from the more folky sounds of before. They have drip-fed new singles this year in anticipation of the January 2026 release of their latest album “Schoonertown”, which takes a look backwards to their home, their upbringing and the experiences that shaped their youth. It’s also a hark back to more folksy sounds dominated by Tim’s fiddle. Listen to one of the early singles, ‘She Got Away’
This article was begun as a shout-out for Tim Chaisson, whose solo albums are well worth exploring, but it has ended up bringing his story right up to date and introduced this writer to a superb band with an interesting backstory and a series of very fine albums. Their live shows early in the New Year in the UK should be a blast, as should the new album.
