Roots powerhouse duo The Small Glories are Cara Luft & JD Edwards, a musical
tour-de-force partnership planted on the Canadian Prairies. Thrown together
purely by accident for an anniversary show at Winnipeg’s venerable West End
Cultural Centre, The Small Glories could almost make you believe in fate.
With a stage banter striking a unique balance between slapstick and sermon, these
veteran singer-songwriters have a way of making time disappear, rooms shrink,
and audiences feel as though they are right there on the stage with the band. It’s
not uncommon for listeners to find themselves laughing, dancing, crying, or caught
up in a good ol’ fashioned sing-along. Their material is welcoming in terms of
subject, folk-pop melody and instrumentation — songs of love, loss, and
environment, delivered with soaring, interwoven vocals on various combinations of
stomping clawhammer banjo, guitar and harmonica.
On record, Luft and Edwards take the musical synergy honed from hundreds of
shows together, and expand it into a new soundscape amplified by pounding drums
and other textural embellishments which only reinforce the magic of their innate
chemistry — a chemistry labeled the “Lennon-McCartney syndrome,” by
Americana UK, writing, “Some things just work together… to witness a
performance by The Small Glories is a rare opportunity to experience that
indefinable quality that creates perfection.”
Luft, one of the original members of folk trio The Wailin’ Jennys, and Edwards
duplicate and reinforce each others’ many strengths and yet allow their distinct
personalities to shine through, resulting in a live show that is as heartwarming as it
is hilarious, as finger-picking proficient as it is relatable, and as Canadian as,
well… it’s very Canadian. But that hasn’t stopped ‘em from winning over audiences
from Nashville to the Australian outback. Their highly anticipated sophomore
album “Assiniboine & The Red” was released on Red House Records, garnering 3
Canadian Folk Music Awards, a JUNO Award nomination, Critics’ Choice for
‘Album of the Year’ in Penguin Eggs Magazine, the #1 Folk/Roots album on the
national earshot! radio charts, and saw the duo win “Artist of the Year” at the
International Folk Awards in New Orleans.
