You might be tempted to accuse Americana UK of shameless opportunism – what day could be better, after all, then the fifth or so day of relentlessly sunny weather to feature a band called The Weather Holds? And we would say “guilty as an ex-PM and ex-MP” if it were not that ‘Five Roses‘ is a wondrous piece of music, multi-layered folk perfection with captured sounds interweaved across Beatrice Ferreira’s fiddle part, Alex Rand’s rippling banjo solo, and Jean-Michel Blais piano playing improvising around the main theme. There are, in fact, at least a dozen musicians playing somewhere on the song, maybe more. It’s rather dazzling in the way it comes together in a seemingly haphazard way, the interplay of the music being the key to a song built on the simplest of lyrical premises.
The Weather Holds is the latest project and supergroup formed by Montreal-based producer and composer Devon Bate. ‘Five Roses‘ is taken from the debut album, ‘You Couldn’t Ask For A More Beautiful Day’, of which Devon Bate says “The songs on the album cover a lot of conceptual ground that’s difficult to summarize – nostalgia, resisting nihilism, cops, heartbreak, bicycles, rosacea – but the album as a whole was largely inspired by my community in Montreal. As time goes on I’ve become an increasingly rare minority as an anglo who moved here for university but never left. The biggest reason I’ve been able to stay here and make a life off art is thanks to the community around me. Working as a music producer, I’m able to help lift up my people’s creative voices, and on this album they lift me up too”
