Album Review: Northern Shore by Skydiggers

SKYDIGGERS play Hugh’s Room on June 8 and 9. See listing. Rating: NNN The eighth album from local roots rockers Skydiggers is an ambitious, almost hour-long effort that was recorded over a few sessions at guitarist Josh Finlayson's Man Cave, Blue Rodeo's Woodshed and the Tragically Hip's Bathouse studio. There's a lot of variety, from the sparse slow build of accordion-drenched opener Waves to the big alt-pop groove of Fire Engine (Red Explosion) and the Byrdsy Andrew Cash cover You've Been Gone So Long.

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Canadian folk-rock group Skydiggers have, throughout their 20-plus years in existence, almost become more well known for their troubles with record labels than any music they’ve recorded, acting as little more than a primer and a cautionary tale for Canuck acts looking to break big. They were signed with a couple of mid-level labels in the early ‘90s and were a fairly popular draw on the pub circuit, but failed to make the big breakthrough to the next level. Those labels the group had been signed with went bankrupt by the mid-‘90s, putting the group’s first three albums out of print.

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We last heard from Toronto, ON roots-rock veterans Skydiggers with their 2009 album, The Truth About Us. That was a career retrospective, while this superb new outing (their eighth studio album) confirms that their creative juices are still flowing freely. A strength of the band is that they have created a signature sound that still manages to be diverse and dynamic.

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