For its third album, SHINE, Sussex founders Rob Lutes (acoustic guitar, vocals) and Michael Emenau (vibraphone, piano) enlisted friends and Montreal music scene and studio stalwarts Joe Grass (Patrick Watson, Mara Tremblay) on pedal steel guitar and Morgan Moore (Martha Wainwright, Barr Brothers, Ranee Lee) on upright bass to produce a multi-textured sound that is not quite like anything else.
Genres be damned. Sussex is country-jazz, ragtime-folk and Tin Pan Alley-blues. SHINE is full of replete with sweet vocal melodies, sophisticated textural vibes chords, sultry bass lines and soaring pedal steel runs interweaving through a set of literate, melodic songs about backyard memories, roadside motels and bittersweet love. These are songs that offer 101 ways to fight - or dance with - the darkness.
Recorded over four days in Fall 2023 at the stunning former chapel that is Alchemist Studio in the St Michel borough of Montreal, the album features six carefully-crafted originals from multiple CFMA and Maple Blues songwriting nominee Lutes, a luxuriant jazz-Americana instrumental Skating from Emenau, and three underappreciated gems from the early 20th century.
SHINE travels a unique sonic landscape that contains echoes of early Jazz, Tin Pan Alley pop, Blues, Country and even a French chansonnier composition by the great Jean Lenoir, to chart a path to the heart of roots music.
Genres be damned. Sussex is country-jazz, ragtime-folk and Tin Pan Alley-blues. SHINE is full of replete with sweet vocal melodies, sophisticated textural vibes chords, sultry bass lines and soaring pedal steel runs interweaving through a set of literate, melodic songs about backyard memories, roadside motels and bittersweet love. These are songs that offer 101 ways to fight - or dance with - the darkness.
Recorded over four days in Fall 2023 at the stunning former chapel that is Alchemist Studio in the St Michel borough of Montreal, the album features six carefully-crafted originals from multiple CFMA and Maple Blues songwriting nominee Lutes, a luxuriant jazz-Americana instrumental Skating from Emenau, and three underappreciated gems from the early 20th century.
SHINE travels a unique sonic landscape that contains echoes of early Jazz, Tin Pan Alley pop, Blues, Country and even a French chansonnier composition by the great Jean Lenoir, to chart a path to the heart of roots music.
Michael Emenau, Joe Grass, Morgan Moore and Rob Lutes on the last day of recording SHINE at Alchemist Studio, Montreal.
First single - Shine Down Every Day