Cancelled: Wayne Petti’s Grey Lands playing Creemore
The Grey Lands performance scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 25 at the Creemore Legion has been cancelled. Organizers said the cancellation is due to a family emergency with one of the musicians.
From the creative musical mind of Wayne Petti comes Grey Lands, performing in Creemore this month.
As a songwriter, Petti manifests an entirely different vibe from his work with Cuff the Duke.
With drummer Daniel Empringham and bassist Nick Hind-Knapp, Petti moves away from Cuff the Duke’s alt-country sound.
Petti said Grey Lands started out as a fluid entity, at first coming out of solo work and then with other musicians in Toronto, until moving to Hamilton and solidifying the current line-up.
Petti said it’s still melodic but more visceral, with unorthodox tuning that directs the sound, taking inspiration from Sonic Youth and Pavement.
Grey Lands, said Petti, harkens back to his musical style before exploring the alt-country style.
“When I was writing and starting to explore more with tuning, I really got into the idea of reopening up this can of worms to some degree and going in a different direction for the pure fun of it,” he said.
Grey Lands first released, Songs By Other People in 2014, an album of covers with several musical guests. It was followed up with Right Arm in 2015, an album of original music.
The Right Arm is not necessarily a political album (even though Petti sports an anti Stephen Harper T-shirt in the video for the song Another Lie). He said he likes that ambiguity.
“My favourite lyrics are the ones that aren’t obvious. You can be feeling bummed out and listen to a song and hear something you’ve never heard before or you identify with the lyrics in a different way because of your mood. I always liked lyrics like that, although they are not the easiest to write,” said Petti.
He said they are adding new songs to their set. Grey Lands has new material taken from a new fully improvised yet-to-be titled album that may be out late spring or summer. Petti said the band worked with Edgar Breau, a member of the Hamilton-based band Simply Saucer, to record hours of improvised music in October, which is being worked into the new album.
“It’s a lot to sift through but there’s some wonderful moments, for sure,” he said.
Grey Lands will be at Creemore Legion on Saturday, Feb. 25. Also on the bill is Brent Randall and the Rainbow Twangers.
Doors open at 7:30 p.m. The show is at 8:30 p.m.
Tickets cost $10 in advance, available online at www.ticketscene.ca and at The Creemore Echo, 3 Caroline St. W. Tickets cost $15 at the door.
