On the heels of their 2022 East Coast Music Award win for Songwriter of the Year, Rube & Rake are embarking on a spring tour of Canada, with a stop at Char’s Landing in Port Alberni.
The celebrated duo hits the road in support of their latest album, Leaving With Nothing. The album begins with an ode to family and friends— togetherness—as Josh Sandu declares, against a hopeful bluegrass backdrop, “somewhere there’s a place to lay my head.” Nine songs later, over a gently plucked guitar, he sings, “I won’t go picking it up, the weight of the page is just too much.”
Following the award-winning 2017 debut Back and Forth, the St. John’s-based Sandu and Andrew Laite wanted to keep the core of that album’s artistic successes—musical and collaborative harmony, folk storytelling—while recognizing audience expectations have intensified. “The first album ends up being the greatest hits of what you’ve done so far,” says Laite. “With record number two, you want it to be in the ring with the first one, only bigger and stronger.”
For their sophomore album Leaving With Nothing, Sandu and Laite enlisted producer Adam Hogan, best known for his anthemic guitar work as a member of Newfoundland’s most beloved indie-rock outfit, Hey Rosetta!. Recording in bits in houses around St. John’s, Rube & Rake (and Hogan) worked to expand the band’s sound to include more instrumentation, surprising time changes and an overall expansion of intention.
The collection of 10 songs fits comfortably in the folk tradition of road-worn tales and lost love laments told across an ever-changing, often lonely landscape. Rube & Rake is for late-night wind-downs, long drives, a walk by the water: solitary and steadfast, honest and true.
The show at Char’s Landing is scheduled for Tuesday, April 25 at 7:30 p.m. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are available at www.sidedooraccess.com or call or text Char at 250-730-1636.