If it hadn’t been for the poets, Simon Paradis might never have become a singer-songwriter. That and the near-fatal accident.
Working as a carpenter and part-time musician, Paradis went down with a collapsing scaffolding in 2008, severing his spinal cord and splitting open his skull. To have survived at all was a near-miracle, and to have worked his way back as a paraplegic, relearning guitar and then emerging as a composing talent, is testament to his spirit, to music itself, and to the love, patience and support of his wife, family, and friends. And those poets.
“I’d played in a lot of bands here on the Coast, but I’d never really sat down and tried to chisel out my own songs,” Paradis said in an interview as he prepared for a release party for his second CD, Grooves and Ruts. The work of former Vancouver poet laureate Rachel Rose helped kicked it all off as he was partway through his long recovery. “I put a couple of her poems to music and that was the start of me falling down the rabbit hole of writing songs. Up until then I’d always been a sideman, a session man.”
The poems of former Coast resident Michael Barnholden also played a role. “He showed up with piles of lyrics,” Paradis said. “He’s a poet so they’re all 27 stanzas long, like Bob Dylan tunes.” A little more chiseling was required, a task made much smoother with the help of Paradis’ wife, writer Kara Stanley. “Kara has taught me a lot about editing. Five of the songs on the new album are co-writes with her. She’s a fabulous author in her own right. So, I have basically this in-house wordsmith that I can go to when I feel like a phrase is clunky.”
Most of the new, 14-song CD – all but one tune written or co-written by Paradis – was recorded in his and Stanley’s Halfmoon Bay home with Farm Team, a band of veteran Coast players Jay B Johnson, Boyd Norman, and David Taylor, along with Neko Case collaborator Paul Rigby, of Vancouver, and Powell River’s Walter Martella. They converted the home’s high-ceilinged, living area into “Cooper Road Studios” by hanging packing blankets off telescoping light stands. “We turned the whole room into an adult pillow-fort,” Paradis said.
The setting contributed to the raunchy blues and folk album’s spare, vintage sound. So did the retro recording gear – a reel-to-reel four-track using one-inch tape. “And we put the drums and the bass on the same track, and it sounded great,” Paradis added. “Just like the Rolling Stones did on Let It Bleed.”
One track, I’ve Been Worse, was recorded with VAMS, Vancouver Adapted Musicians Society, an organization of musicians with mobility issues. Paradis raves about Dave Symington, who has no hand function from his elbow on down, but uses a little Velcro and some complex digital technology to drum at a professional level. “It’s a musical miracle to watch Dave. He plays like [The Band drummer and singer] Levon Helm,” Paradis said.
The Grooves and Ruts release party will be held at Roberts Creek Legion Saturday, Sept. 28, starting at 9:30 p.m.
