Pastor Lopez 16 Exitos Vol. 2 CD

Recorded live off the floor in just a couple of days at the Factory Studio in Vancouver, 'Proof of Love' captures the thrill of hearing music made in the moment. The band includes John Raham (The Be Good Tanyas, Kinnie Starr) on drums, Mark Beaty (The Be Good Tanyas) on bass, Adrian Dolan (The Bills) on fiddle, Steve Dawson on guitars and Alice Dawson, Rose Cousins, and the Sojourners on back-up vocals. The result is a hooky unique take on folk music that swaggers with a breezy depth reminiscent of John Prine or a more lyrical John Hartford. The songs remain, as always, powerful early folk-inspired offerings that continue to marry the warmth and complexity of Old Man Luedecke's banjo interplay with the emotional lyricism that has won him a devoted following.

'Proof of Love' has some unusual heroes painted in some of the best and most exciting language we've had from Old Man Luedecke yet. There's Zoe, who finds lawns a yawn and plants a garden instead at her suburban home and thus is the 'Spirit of the age, a breaker of the cage, she's a proof of love'. There's the hero of 'Ain't Goin My Way', the everyman that sings about overstretching himself who's 'inner napoleon' hastens him to a fall. 'Sad as a Forest' details the bitterness of a single leaf in the fall whose life could have been brilliant but feels, instead, 'sad as a forest that's all been cut down'. 'Big Group Breakfast' is a celebration of the hangover meal where friends gather in a diner and the song revels in how such rituals help get them through it all. Old Man Luedecke's 'Proof of Love' shows again that special catchy poetic quality which makes his music so endearing and enduring.