In “Hard Days Work”, Carleton Stone reflects on life’s quality throughout the years. He puts himself in the shoes of the blue collar dads he grew up around, paying tribute to those who built the houses and towns on Cape Breton Island. This reflection is seen throughout his self-produced new third solo album, Papercut, his strongest and most candid songwriting to date.
“The foundation of this town is a poor man’s hard day’s work,” Stone sings. “Armed with a couple lifetimes of songwriting and touring in his rear view mirror – Carleton Stone gets honest about the toll of devotion to craft while illustrating his mastery of it.”
“And what are some of the things that you lose when you decide to live your life like this?” Stone says. “There are parts of it where you experience the highest highs, things that feel so rare, you know–performing songs you wrote in front of sold-out audiences all the time … I don’t take any of it for granted.
But there are sacrifices, too,” he adds. “Your relationships with your family and your friends and significant others can suffer, and you’re always on the road. There’s collateral damage, and I was thinking a lot about that, and about things that might’ve been.”
There are surely some within the range of emotions encapsulated in this album that Stone will reach to grab your attention to his raw talent.
“Papercut also features Liam Jaeger (bass), Howie Beck (percussion), Kevin Fox (cello), Tom Moffett (trumpet), Julian Nalli (saxophone), Mel Stone (vocals), and Erin Costelo (vocals). It was engineered by Stone himself, Darren McGill, and Aaron Goldstein at Union Sound (Toronto, ON), Gold Standard Recorders (Toronto), and The Loft (Cape Breton, NS), and mixed by Howie Beck. The album also spotlights some of Nova Scotia’s most compelling talent in its co-writing credits, which include Breagh Isabel, Leanne Hoffman, Dave Sampson, Dylan Guthro, and Kayleigh O’Connor.”
Find this and more exciting new music on our Alchemical Multigenre Mixdown Playlist on Spotify.
Emma Page, a recent Journalism graduate of The George Washington University, possesses a passion for music journalism and storytelling in all its forms. Originally from Baltimore, MD, when she is not writing, she can be found at a local concert or making music of her own.
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Alchemical Records is a Washington, D.C. based music publication. We cover the Washington, D.C., Baltimore and Richmond, VA metro area music scenes, including band interviews, articles about your favorite musicians, new music and concert dates.
