While most Halifax musicians are heading out at 9:30pm on
Saturday, Penelope Jackson and Dan MacCormack are getting ready for
bed. They know their two-year-old son Clem has a 4am wake-up call in
store for them.
With that schedule, it’s no wonder it’s taken a year-and-a-half
working with bandmate David Bradshaw for Grassmarket to release the
follow-up to its acclaimed EP Waiting…, released in 2007.
Evolving from traditional banjo/mandolin music, the new distinct
folk-pop tracks on Port City capture the spirit of traditional
music while fitting snug next to Feist or Joel Plaskett.
“We don’t set out to play traditional and bluegrass music anymore,”
says Jackson. “We’re writing really poppy songs now and feel
daredevil-ish for using an electric guitar.”
You won’t even find “bluegrass” in Grassmarket’s bio. While it’s a
bluegrass tradition to have “grass” in your name, they don’t have the
right rhythms or harmonies and are one member short to fit the genre’s
rigid definition.
“Any real bluegrass band would be scandalized if we called ourselves
bluegrass,” says MacCormack. “I always felt fraudulent when people
called us bluegrass.”
Besides, it was pop music from the beginning for Jackson and
MacCormack. They first met at a party, playing music together all night
long, starting with Bruce Springsteen’s “I’m on Fire.”
Jackson and MacCormack haven’t let their marriage get in the way of
their music. If things get heated with the group, it’s because their
lives are tense and difficult at home, like last winter when they were
both sick and Clem threw up for a week straight. But since she’s a book
editor by day, Jackson admits her criticism can be ruthless.
MacCormack takes this in stride. Jackson never played much live
music before they met, and so being much more driven and goal-oriented
MacCormack gave her a 150-year-old banjo, and pushed her into working
on songs and playing a weekly gig interpreting traditional music at
Ginger’s Tavern. It wasn’t long after they started playing traditional
music that they started sneaking in their own songs.
Now, beyond Jackson’s clawhammer banjo and Bradshaw’s howling
harmonica, the traditional elements are most felt in the songwriting’s
autobiographical nature. Jackson and MacCormack revel in the bald
emotion of traditional songs. Because of this, Port City is a
sort of scrapbook, chronicling the past two years and especially
Clem.
“Before having a kid I didn’t understand the depth of that emotion
and the legacy of what every parent ever that wasn’t psychotic has
felt—this enormous love in their child,” says Jackson.
But Grassmarket is much more than the Jackson and MacCormack show.
Bradshaw plays an integral part on Port City. His
folk-influenced fiddle, mandolin, guitar and harmonica provide
Grassmarket with down-home warmth, and the three-part harmonies reflect
the family life of the lyrics.
Even with Bradshaw, things aren’t getting easier for Grassmarket.
Clem is battling the terrible twos with a fiddle and construction hat.
There are their full-time jobs and MacCormack’s masters’ degree to
finish. But the pair won’t stop.
“It’s been a joy,” says Jackson, “and such an enormous part of our
relationship and our lives, that even though I daydream which chunks of
our life we could amputate I really can’t imagine what it would be like
to not have this going on.”
This article appears in Oct 1-7, 2009.
