The title track from the upcoming album from Blues/Roots rockers The Shaftmen is a fictional tale of murder and mystery set in Northern Ontario during the late sixites.
Like some of the Shaftmen songs it has it’s inspiration and roots in Northern Ontario Heritage and Culture.
The chorus to North Country Blues starts from the point of a former miner and pulp mill worker running from the RCMP for a murder he may have committed in a fight at a bar back in 1968.
That chase takes part on the treeline above Timmins through deep snow and freezing cold
This kind of storytelling is in line with songwriting from the debut album MINING THE BLUES and PAYCHEQUE BLUES our second cd.
For example on the track 25 Tons from Paycheque Blues (a transport truck crash on Hwy 144 to Sudbury unfolds)
Shaftmen Boogie from Mining The Blues (Underground Mining in Timmins)
Northern Rock N’ Scene (Paycheque Blues) a song that name checks city founder Noah Timmins, Henry Kelneck (Timmins Big Band founder/musician of the fifties) and former groups from Timmins and area.
The Shaftmen don’t compare their music to artists like Bruce Springsteen or Muddy Waters but like both of those artists they continue to write and record music about their life and inspiration from their own culture and heritage.
For more on the Shaftmen visit www.theshaftmen.com The group’s music is available on Apple itunes and Amazon.com throughout the world.
http://itunes.apple.com/ca/album/paycheque-blues/id365389443
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