Jimmy Rankin (press photo) Harvest Highway cover art, Black Bird 1971, by June Leaf
February 21, 2024
-by John Gillis
It doesn’t take long into the interview with Jimmy Rankin about his new release, his eighth solo effort, that you begin to realize he had a lot of fun making Harvest Highway.
“It wasn’t really our intention going in, but we ended up doing much of the album pretty much live off the floor,” the Cape Breton born and Halifax-based singer songwriter told The Oran this week.
Like his 2018 recording, Moving East, Harvest Highway was recorded mostly analogue in Dartmouth at Fang Studios with musician/producer Joel Plaskett at the helm. Both Moving East and Harvest Highway are available on vinyl.
“Joel is a producer – he has the studio – but he’s also a singer, a songwriter, and a touring musician. So he knows live and he also knows studio, and we have a similar interest in those albums from the ’60s and ’70s that have a sound that most modern recordings just can’t touch,” Rankin adds.
Rankin had great things to say about the band that they assembled to record the album.
“When you have multi-instrumentalists and vocalists like Joel (Plaskett) and J.P. Cormier – sometimes great things happen just playing that you want to keep,” said Rankin.
“I’d worked briefly with J.P. Cormier on the previous album, but it was just basically a bit of over-dubbing and of course we’ve met up on stages over the years. This time however, we had the chance to play together more and he’s just a wizard in the studio,” Rankin added.
Also present on this recording is Rankin’s long-time stand-up bass partner, Ron Hynes, along with Dale Murray on pedal steel, Jordan Murphy on drums and percussion, and Brenley MacEachern and Lisa MacIsaac (Madison Violet) on backing vocals.
“I’d come to know Brenley and Lisa over the years and I’d always hoped for an opportunity to work with them and I finally got the chance with this project,” Rankin added.
The title track from the recording is already receiving quite a bit of airplay as its first single.
“Harvest Highway just seemed like a great opener and appropriate title for the album. I keep a lot of snippets for song ideas on my phone and one day I was on my way to a gig driving Highway 101 in Nova Scotia when I noticed a sign referring to the Harvest Highway in the Annapolis Valley. The song really started there and it grew as I came back to the idea. It’s really a metaphor for life,” Rankin stated.
The artwork for the album features a painting, Blackbird, 1971, by June Leaf.
Rankin said the vividness of the painting comes across much better on the vinyl versions of Harvest Highway rather than on the smaller CD copies.
On Harvest Highway, Rankin pays tribute to the late John Allan Cameron with a couple of well-known traditional songs, Peggy Gordon and Banks of Sicily.
“Yeah, I wanted to give a nod to John Allan. Growing up, we were so familiar with those recordings he made and they were part of our repertoire in the early days with The Rankin Family. I enjoy playing many of those traditional songs and I thought they’d be fun to record,” Rankin added.
Another thing you’ll find on Harvest Highway is Jimmy playing Wurlitzer and piano on several of his new songs such as Merasheen Farewell, Doors of Assisi, Missing at the Somme, Our Time Is Tonight, and on the closing track, One Direction.
Rankin has played some piano for much of his adult life, but he’s concentrated on it more in recent years and was encouraged by Plaskett to start playing it in his concerts.
“I went out on a short tour as a trio last fall to British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan right after the album came out and it was the first time really that I played keys in my shows and I think it went pretty well,” he added.
“One Direction, the closing track, is a song I began working on years ago with (Canadian) Patricia Conroy down in Nashville. I had gotten to know her in her touring days in Canada and she moved on to settle in Nashville with the intention of being a songwriter. We had written Here In My Heart together and we have a good chemistry for writing together, which is so important. So, I’d been thinking about the song and I couldn’t find any demo tracks of it so I called her up and sure enough, she had a copy – so I was thrilled. I re-worked it a bit and made a key change,” said Rankin.
Rankin says he’ll be back on the road with a short tour of Ontario later this month – again as a trio with bass, guitars, and piano.
Rankin included several Atlantic Canadian shows in his Canadian tour last fall, which also covered western Canada but he’s not sure yet if or when any further eastern Canadian dates will be added any time soon.
May 1st – 5th sees Jimmy nominated for four more East Coast Music Awards in Charlottetown for Harvest Highway. They include: Album of the Year, Contemporary Roots Recording of the Year, Solo Recording of the Year, and Fans’ Choice Entertainer of the Year.
If history repeats itself, Rankin is going to have to build a bigger mantle piece to hold the awards – he has thus far earned five JUNO Awards, seven Canadian Country Music Awards, and some 27 ECMAs in addition to others.
Besides Harvest Highway (2023), Rankin’s solo album efforts include Moving East (2018), Back Road Paradise (2014), Tinsel Town (2012), Forget About the World (2011), Edge of Day (2007), Handmade (2003), and Song Dog (2001)plus his contributions to numerous Rankin Family recordings.
Missing exits,
Keep on going,
Keep on reaping
What we’re sowing,
That’s what they always say.
You and me we ride together,
We roll through any kind of weather,
It’s just another day
On the Harvest Highway
“Overall, Harvest Highway is a captivating showcase of Jimmy Rankin’s versatility as a songwriter, weaving a tapestry of tales and emotions that range from profound love and yearning to introspection and unwavering strength,” Jenna Melanson concluded in a review of the recording in Canadian Beats magazine.
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