A new album from the Bills? Yes Please.
If the Bills weren’t already a super-group when they formed back in 1996, they certainly are now.
Guitarist Marc Atkinson has earned WCMA nominations with his eponymous hot jazz ensemble – whose second album was voted one of the top five albums in North America by Acoustic Guitar magazine. Bills vocalist Chris Frye was the rhythm guitarist in Marc’s trio for ten years and appears on all their albums. He released a WCMA-nominated album of his own in 2006, featuring the Wailin’ Jennys, Mae Moore and Oh Susanna.
Adrian Dolan has leant his wizardry on accordion, fiddle, piano, mandolin, — you name it, really — to albums and tours with The Chieftains, the Rankin Sisters, Barney Bentall, Ruth Moody, The Arrogant Worms, and Ridley Bent, to name a few. He’s also played with several classical orchestras and is a sought-after record producer. Joey Smith was a bassist and arranger for the Glenn Miller Orchestra and has performed with Cleo Laine, Rosemary Clooney, Herb Ellis, and Charlie Byrd.
And the most recent addition to the Bills, fiddler and violist Richard Moody, almost needs no introduction. An alumnus of Acoustically Inclined, he is an accomplished solo artist, an award-winning composer of music for film, and one of Canada’s most sought-after side-men and session players.
Of course, their boundless positivity, mischievous humour, and totally-over-the-top outstanding musicianship is precisely what rocketed The Bills to the forefront of the Canadian and international roots circuit in the first place.
They’ve played all the big festivals, sold out folk clubs — sometimes for multiple nights, earned two consecutive Juno nominations for Roots and Traditional Album of the Year (group) and won Western Canadian Music Awards for Outstanding Roots Recording and Entertainer of the Year.
Their new album, their first in more than eight years, Yes Please, debuts on September 4th. Until then, the Bills have shared a special preview with Roots Music Canada readers. Have a listen to “Hallowed Hall,” a song that pays tribute to the gathering places where music is made.
See the Bills live at your local hallowed hall:
Aug. 31 – Hornby Island Hall, Hornby Island, BC
Sept. 1 – The Rix Centre, Bamfield, BC
Sept. 6 – Alix Goolden Hall, Victoria
Sept. 7 – St. James Hall, Vancouver
Sept. 8 – Mayne Island Hall, Mayne Island, BC
Sept. 12 – Hugh’s Room, Toronto
Sept. 13 – The Blacksheep Inn, Wakefield
Sept. 15 – The West End Cultural Centre, Winnipeg
Sept. 28 – Dalhousie Community Centre, Calgary Folk Club, Calgary
We need more of this author’s work!
ET
The Bills are back?!! Words fail me. I gave up hope years ago that I’d ever see them again. I’m definitely ordering the new album, pronto. The question now is whether or when they might ever play again at the Freight and Salvage in Berkeley. I’ll work on it from this end.
yay Elaine!
if you can bring them back to Berkeley, i’ll be there!
Caught the Bills some years ago at the Bullfrog Brewery in Williamsport PA on their way thru to somewhere else. Free concert for us….free beer and lodging for them. Hardly anyone there on a Sunday night but they put on a no holds bar performance for the few of us who were lucky enough to be there. We listen to them frequently and always hoped they might come this way again….or somewhere close by. So glad for a new CD and will definitely be acquiring one. Thank you Bills.
Love the Bills. Caught them at the Bullfrog Brewery in Williamsport, PA years ago. They were passing through on a Sunday night and though the audience was small they put on a free no holds bar performance for the few of us lucky enough to have been there. Looking forward to the new CD. Many happy returns.
Brilliant! Now when are you coming to the UK? Soon we hope…
One of my favorite groups. I just ordered the new album.