Justin Rutledge — The Early Widows

It's kind of hard to believe the Justin Rutledge on The Early Widows and the one on his past three albums are, well, the same Justin Rutledge.

The Toronto-based singer/songwriter sounds much different on The Early Widows. That's got a lot to do with Hawksley Workman's production. Rutledge handed over the reins to Workman, who's changed things up quite a bit.

Electric guitars are more prominent on The Early Widows — which is based on Cooper, a character from Michael Ondaatje's novel Divisadero — and two drummers were brought into the studio to beef up its sound.

Workman's also added a gospel choir to many of The Early Widows' tracks. There's even a massive scrub of Beatles-esque noise at the beginning of "Snowmen" — something that was bassist and Blue Rodeo member Bazil Donovan's idea, but would have been unthinkable on a Rutledge record even a mere two years ago.

While all of that sounds like it might not work with Rutledge's usual alt.country tunes, nothing really sounds confused on The Early Widows. While Workman can sometimes be all over the place with his own recordings, here he's helped reinvigorate Rutledge's sound and made him more adventurous, right when Rutledge needed it.

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