Bob Lanois Takes His Famous Little Brother Down Snake Road

07/20/07 6:00pm

by Shawn Despres (CHARTattack)

The Lanois brothers are definitely kindred spirits. While the younger Daniel Lanois may be the more famous of the pair after releasing several acclaimed albums of his own and producing discs for Bob Dylan and U2, Bob Lanois is no slouch either. Well-respected in the Canadian music scene, he's worked on recordings with artists as diverse as Bruce Cockburn, Jackie Washington and Simply Saucer. Following in his brother's footsteps, he put out a solo effort late last year.

When it came time for Bob to make his Snake Road debut, he enlisted his brother's help. Having collaborated on a number of projects in the past, and continually influenced by one another, the decision to play together was a simple one that the elder Lanois is glad he made.

"Working with Dan was a breeze," he says. "We played almost everything live together, with me on harmonica and Dan on the piano or guitar. He was teaching himself the piano during that time, so we got a certain kind of sound because of it, sparse and immensely beautiful.

"Dan, in my opinion, is the best arranger of our times. He arranged my music so wonderfully and played each part in the most heartfelt way. That is what he does. It's not really studio witchcraft, as much as people want to believe that, it's just old-fashioned amazing song arrangement."

Despite Bob's work as a producer and engineer, he never had an inkling to be a musician until a friend gave him a harmonica. When he began experimenting with his new present, his imagination instantly began creating the instrumental tunes that adorn Snake Road.

"The tunes mostly wrote themselves and came to me in the form of moving images that needed a soundtrack," the occasional visual artist explains. "The song 'The Vampire' is the first thing I wrote, and it just revealed itself to me as if someone or something meant for me to express it.

"It has its roots in ancient Europe, but lives in the future. I am interested in the future and so I enjoy playing and emoting from that place, even though my ancestors still torment me and drive many of my moods."

Lanois' Quebecois ancestry played a big part in the making of Snake Road. The brothers used their sparse, hypnotic compositions to delve further into their family's French-Canadian roots. As they tried to make sense of their past through music, a whole new world and era revealed itself in Lanois' mind, allowing him to explore aspects of European history, which added another dimension to the disc's nine cuts.

"When my mother started to tell her stories of when she was a girl in Quebec, all those jigs and all that fiddle music I'd heard as a child all started to resurface and drove me to go to that ancient place that I understand, yet didn't know that I did.

"The European stuff is a mystery. It's as if someone from that distant time is trying to speak to me. I have yet to fully examine that connection and even now new work is taking me to those ancient places. The future rules my world, however, and these ancient collaborators will just have to deal with my need to re-invent and discover."

Lanois will showcase material from Snake Road in Quebec and Ontario on tour with Simply Saucer's Edgar Breau. Both of the Hamilton-based musicians will perform separately, but likely join forces at different points throughout the night. Drummer Tone Valcic will accompany Lanois. He'll tour Sweden in August and hopes to play Canadian East Coast shows in the fall.

Here are Bob Lanois' Canadian tour dates:

July 20 Montreal, QC @ Casa Del Popolo
July 21 Wakefield, QC @ Black Sheep Inn
July 22 Hamilton, ON @ Casbah
July 25 Kitchener, ON @ The Boathouse
July 27 Oakville, ON @ Moonshine Cafe
July 28 Toronto, ON @ Cadillac Lounge