Lineup 2011
Acres and Acres
Halifax, Nova Scotia
On a sunny day in May 2008, Kris Pope and Dave Scholten had each finished their Steve O Reno’s coffee and were sitting on the concrete wall behind the library. Images of rusty farm machinery and abandoned barns filled their heads as they searched for a name to represent those images and the music they had been playing. One of them said “Acres”, the other one said “and Acres”, and in the same way that they write a song, or a good friend finishes a sentence, Acres and Acres was born.
After 3 years of heavy touring with ECMA Nominated art rock band Down with the Butterfly, Kris and Dave found themselves obsessed with the values of simplicity and realism. More and more of the songs they were writing seemed to need a stripped down approach to properly tell the story. Inspired by the feel of Neil Young’s Harvest album, and guided by an approach not unlike the Cowboy Junkies’ Trinity Sessions, they headed into the studio.
The band’s debut album, All Nations is a compilation of live off the floor recordings performed at Spaces Between Studio and at All Nations Church between April 12th 2008 and March 31st 2009. It features some of Halifaxs finest, including Benn Ross (Heavy Meadows, Thrush Hermit), Rose Cousins, Amelia Curran, Don Brownrigg, and The Ukeladies.
Mat Dunlap (Just Friends Records, Lets Get Baked with Mat and Dave), and Stephen Sherwood (Engine Face Films) captured the recording sessions on video as they unfolded. A DVD about the recording of the album and the community that inspired it will be released in early 2010.
Find Acres and Acres online…