"Sentinel Road" is a collection
of vaguely banjo-and-fiddle based songs arranged and performed by Tyler Shipley of the Consumer Goods.
After three modestly successful records and pan-Canadian
tours, Shipley found himself caught in a political moment - a three
month strike at the university where
he teaches - that meant the band took a backseat. Instead, he
began playing the banjo at meetings and on picket lines - sometimes
adapting old songs and
sometimes writing new ones. Among them was "We'll Go All
The Way," an adaptation of Old Man Luedecke's "Little Bird" which became
the unofficial anthem of the strike.
The strike was a complicated and contradictory event.
Though he never intended to take on a major role, Shipley found himself
at the center of the storm, sitting on the Union's
executive committee and representing its 3400 members in the
media. "I would have been quite happy to simply walk the lines," says
Shipley, "but circumstances conspired
to create significant holes in the Union's internal infrastruture. I felt
a certain responsibility after many years of engagement in labour
struggles, to offer my services where they were needed.
I couldn't have ever anticipated the enormity of what I had signed
up for."
As a potential-strike became a strike became a prolonged-strike,
Shipley experienced a personal and political test of the highest order,
becoming one of the more recognized faces
within the Union and in the public.
"There is no training for something like that. We found ourselves
up against a variety of machines - the Employer, the province, the
newspapers - and somehow had to fend them all off. In a battle like
that, the internal
disagreements about how to carry out that struggle became
intensely heated and divisive. I made many cherished friendships and
lost a number of others. I made mistakes and paid for them. I made
good decisions and paid for them even more. To call it a moment of
personal and political upheaval
is certainly fair."
The songs that make up this record reflect that upheaval and
contradiction. On the one hand, they celebrate the victories along the
way and the human connections that are built by a
common struggle. At the same time, they document the moments of
doubt, confusion and disappointment that are inevitable in any such
confrontation. According to Shipley, the record is
"neither celebration nor polemic, not partisan but certainly not
non-partisan, not mechanically political but not vapidly personal."
Instead, it reflects a unique personal journey through a
political moment, and one that probably resonates in certain moments
with many of Shipley's colleagues on the lines. More importantly, it
approaches the problem with self-awareness as
Shipley applies his critical eye to not only the forces that were
amassed against his Union but also the dynamics internal to the Union
itself.
Musically, it is a departure from the shining pop rock we have come
to expect from the Consumer Goods, but one that should not be
altogether surprising. It retains the rough-and-ready
feel that makes the Consumer Goods so endearing and channels a variety
of influences from traditional bluegrass that are brought together into
a cohesive whole by longtime musical partner
and producer Ryan McVeigh. Guest musicians abound, including Susanna
Weins and Matt McLennan (from Use Every Part of the Deer), a chorus of
Union members, and Winnipeg's Greg
MacPherson. Spanning 16 tracks, the record features original songs,
adapted traditional melodies, audio clips from the picket lines, and
even a haunting reading from the work of Canadian
labour-poet Dawn Fraser.
"Sentinel Road" was released on March 6, 2010.