Richard Laviolette writes a hundred songs a year. His songs are consistent in their clever heartfelt rolling lyrics sung by Laviolette’s beautiful dream voice, wrapping audiences and listeners in his sounds. Echo and melody. Laviolette’s voice is a deep well of water. His lyrics are brilliant scraps of paper. Letters written home. He sings about death, anti-colonial struggle and long distance relationships. His voice carries audience’s hearts somewhere else, so their feet can’t be moved and they are forced to stand where they are and just listen.
The Oil Spills joined Laviolette to create All Your Raw Materials, Originally independently released on CD in Sept, 2009. This album was recorded mostly live-off-the-floor at the House of Miracles, London ON, July 2008. This is Laviolette’s 4th Album, the first one with The Oil Spills. He has previously released Aging Recycling Plant (Independent 2009), Hands and Feat(s) (Burnt Oak 2007), and A Little Less Like a Rock, A Little More Like Home (Burnt Oak 2006).
The Oil Spills are Geordie Gordon (The Magic, Barmitzvah Brothers, the Islands), Meredith Grant, Greg Denton, Mike Brooks (Kae Sun), Lisa Bozikovic, Matt Reeves, Jenny Mitchell (Barmitzvah Brothers, The Burning Hell, Jenny Omnichord), and Jessy Bell Smith.
This Highly Talented cast step up to the plate and deliver a darling country album inspired by a childhood full of waking up on weekends to country, gospel, and bluegrass records blasting from the livingroom such as George Jones, Tammy Wynette, The Judds, Dolly Parton, Roger Miller, Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs, Bob Wills, Neil Young’s ‘Old Ways’, and The Nitty Gritty Dirtband’s ‘Will the Circle Be Unbroken’.
'ALL OF YOUR RAW MATERIALS' VINYL RELEASE TOUR BEGINS JULY 15, 2010.