Sunparlour Players Sing Hymns For The Happy Again

Like most things in life, it came down to a mixture of hard work and chance for Toronto trio Sunparlour Players. During a year-long residency at the city's Tranzac club — where the band played their phenomenal aggregate of country, rock and gospel to a devoutly loyal group of fans — a copy of their self-pressed Hymns For The Happy debut made it into the hands of indie imprint Baudelaire's Evan Newman.

After securing a deal with the label, the band took the opportunity to re-record elements of the disc while remastering the whole thing in preparation for a wide release.

"I'm not a perfectionist," assures group founder, lead singer and songwriter Andrew Penner. "We recorded almost the whole thing on our own the first go-around.

"And we really didn't know what we were doing. And with that you get amazing results, but you can also get results where you just make due. When the opportunity came through Baudelaire and Outside, it just seemed like a great opportunity to change the things we always had a problem with — but not screw up the feel or intention of what was originally planned."

The sound is now bigger and closer to the band's raucous shows. But Penner never had any thought of changing the album sequencing or adding tracks. He simply wanted it to live up to his original expectations. Ultimately, he feels it's a better representation of who Sunparlour Players are and where they're coming from.

"To me, the album is finished now. If the first version of that album, if nothing ever happened to it, it wouldn't kill me. But now that we're able to put it out nationwide, it just seemed like a great fit. I'm really happy with the changes we were able to make. It just feels like a more solid piece of work.

"I love that recording, but this second one, to me, feels like it's a great combination of the way we play it live, and the subtleties of the first recording."

The band are getting set to showcase the newly minted LP on their first cross-Canada trek on tour with The Acorn and Elliott Brood. While they're on the road, Sunparlour Players intend to keep things interesting for what are sure to become a whole new legion of loyal followers.

"I'm writing and we're working on tunes so that when we go on tour we can work into our set at least of couple of new songs," says Penner. "Just because we don't want to play the same songs every night."

Here are Sunparlour Players' tour dates:

Oct. 18 Toronto, ON @ Rivoli
Oct. 19 Guelph, ON @ Vinyl
Oct. 20 Windsor, ON @ Avalon Front
Oct. 25 Sault Ste. Marie, ON @ Gallery Lounge
Oct. 26 Thunder Bay, ON @ Outpost
Oct. 27 Winnipeg, MB @ West End Cultural Centre
Oct. 28 Saskatoon, SK @ Louie's
Oct. 29 Lethbridge, AB @ The Slice
Oct. 30 Edmonton, AB @ Starlite Room
Nov. 2 Vancouver, BC @ Plaza
Nov. 3 Victoria, BC @ Logan's
Nov. 5 Calgary, AB @ Broken City
Nov. 6 Regina, SK @ Lazy Owl
Nov. 14 London, ON @ London Music Club
Nov. 15 Waterloo, ON @ Starlight Social Club
Nov. 16 Wakefield, QC @ Black Sheep Inn
Nov. 17 Peterborough, ON @ Montreal House
Nov. 19 Hamilton, ON @ Casbah
Dec. 31 Wakefield, QC @ Black Sheep Inn