Lineup 2014

Molly Thomason

Antigonish, NS

“Are you all mine tonight?”

Molly Thomason has a lot of questions. Some are plaintive, some desperate, some giddy. Most are challenges. A 19-year-old on her third record in four years, she already seems to know a lot of the answers.

Columbus Field captures the undeniable excitement and no-holds barred romance of youth. Think of crazy kids, lots of guitars, and real-life small-town summer nights. It is classic rock and roll, ushered into 2014 by a firecracker of a girl.

Already a touring vet, Molly’s had multiple nominations for Music Nova Scotia and East Coast Awards and has achieved finalist slots in the John Lennon Songwriting and International Song Contests. She won Young Performer of the Year at the 2011 Canadian Folk Music Awards, the “She’s the One” competition at the 2012 Ottawa Bluesfest, and the Emerging Artist Series at Summerfest (Milwaukee, WI) in 2013. Molly was also named one of Canada’s Top 20 Under 20 by Youth In Motion for her work as a human rights activist.

While Molly has since left the small Nova Scotia town where she spent her teenage years for Toronto’s dirty streets and untold delights, Columbus Field tells the final chapter of her time there – a commemoration of wasted days and nights, of kids fumbling around and finding their way.

In 2012, a chance meeting at a party led to a collaboration with John-Angus MacDonald (The Trews). MacDonald was so impressed with Molly that they immediately starting working on a companion EP to 2011′s Beauty Queen. The EP quickly morphed into a high energy ten song album and Columbus Field is the result.

The album unveils Molly’s Tegan and Sara-like adeptness at setting sensitive sentiments to pretty pop melodies. Her dynamic, elastic voice could out-sing Hayley Williams while matching Neko Case and Carrie Brownstein in gravity, passion and crush inspiration. She tells her truth sincerely – thrillingly – with brutal, inspiring honesty.

With MacDonald producing and on lead guitar, Jason “Cone” McCaslin of Sum 41 on bass, Nick DeToro (Sloan) on drums and at the board, and mixed by Big Sugar’s Gordie Johnson with Howie Weinberg (Nirvana, Modest Mouse) on mastering duty – Columbus Field is a hook-laden bullet of a record.