Canyon Rose Outfit to release new CD


The above video was directed and edited by Christan Maslyk, shot by Russell Ferris, and features local young musicians in the roles of Canyon Rose Outfit members.

By Stephen Dafoe

Morinville – The Canyon Rose Outfit (CRO) is looking to put the roll back in rock and roll with their new CD, tentatively titled Rock and Roll Hangover. The 11-track CD will be available at independent record stores in Edmonton, through iTunes and at Rocktober, taking place Oct. 5 at the Morinville Community Cultural Centre.

CRO frontman Christan Maslyk said the new album marks a turning point in the band’s direction and is the culmination of two years of time in the studio, culling 30 songs the band has written down to a manageable 11 songs.

“We’re happy to put out something that we can stand behind and that we feel represents the band and where we are at now,” Maslyk said. “The songs are more mature, in my opinion. There are a lot less 10-minute songs. They’re more at the three-and-a-half minute mark. there is less jamming and capturing the live show and the live energy. There’s a lot more respect for the medium and working with different sounds and textures.”

CRO’s sound has evolved over the years. Known as a party band that keeps the crowd moving, the band wants to show their other side, one they hope Rock and Roll Hangover will address. The band’s first full CD sounded like five musicians playing in a room, a feel the band wanted at the time. The new release promises to be a much more nuanced recording that is radio ready. The band is moving past the southern rock roots that put them ahead of the curve on that trend and moving to the next curve, one that experiments with multiple layers of textured guitars.

“It almost seems like two albums together,” Maslyk said of the upcoming release. “There’s a rock and roll feel to it, and then there is a little less rock and roll feel to it, more modern with different chord progressions and phrasing than you normally hear in blues-based rock and roll.”

The Canyon Rose Outfit

Putting the roll back in rock and roll

Maslyk said the band does not feel comfortable being a time period band and that their song Rock and Roll Hangover speaks somewhat to the cultural situation music is in today. “I feel like the rock and roll cause has been kind of lost over the last little while, and it’s branded with mainstream radio,” he said, adding it has become fashionable to be an old-style rock and roll band. We really don’t like the idea of being a time period band or revival band. There is only so far you can go doing something that’s already been done. I feel that in a lot of music you hear on the radio the true sense of rock and roll has been lost.”

For Maslyk and CRO, rock and roll is as much about attitude as it is music. “It kind of feels like fighting the good fight,” he said of what the band is trying to do. “Rock and roll; I kind of think of it in two ways. I think of it as a cause and an attitude, which has a lot to do with the liberation of one’s spirit in whatever way. It’s freedom of expression and a lot to do with sex and a lot to do with thinking for yourself. But then I also think of it in strictly a musical sense. In rock and roll I hear it stemming from gospel, blues, country. I don’t think rock and roll records in a musical sense have been made in a long time. I feel a lot of the roll has been lost. There’s still a lot of rock going on.”

The band has also released a video of Rock and Roll Hangover, using local young musicians playing the parts of CRO band members. The video was driected and edited by Maslyk and shot by photographer / videographer Russell Ferris.

More information on the Canyon Rose Outfit’s new CD can be found on the band’s website at canyonroseoutfit.com.

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