Plaskett, a good Maritime boy from the beautiful Nova Scotia South Shore town of Lunenburg – a UN World Heritage site, don’t you know – is maybe my favourite artist working today, and I’ve promoted his songs in this space before. This is another one from his terrific Three collection, not coincidentally his third solo record, on which almost all the titles repeat themselves three times, and the number three and its multiples are repeatedly incorporated in almost mystical fashion, it being a triple album, broken into three collections of nine songs apiece, while the overall work is about going away, being lonely, and coming back home, a true Maritimer’s trio of themes.
This one’s about being lonely, and expresses emotions that all of we East Coast economic refugees will recognize, feeling lost under the unfamiliar stars of a foreign sky, dreaming of home and trying to forget where you are, and hoping that somebody back home is keeping the porch light on for you, just in case.
There’s a poignant, delicate quality to so many of Joel’s songs, reminiscent in a way of Nick Drake, though sweeter, and if anything even more melodic. Joel’s not depressed, like Drake was; it’s just that sometimes he’s terribly sad, a much different thing that afflicts a lot of us when we’re out here, so far from home. It’s no wonder that so many of us find our way back, just as I did.
the needlefish 