Reviews for Cameron Latimer

This doesn't look good. Spindly bangs from some strange, back to front combover. Creepy Deliverance style. Is Cameron Latimer having us on? Don't think so. The songs, all heart achy cowpoke numbers, are delivered with utmost sincerity and dexterous playing. Weepy guitar slides, wailin' fiddles and forlorn hiccuppy vocals make for a dessert classic, tumblin' tumbleweeds style.

The backstory to this post is that there's an Eagles album in my old Sony 5 disc changer, and while I've been loving it I've also wanted to hit up some country rock that's a little more recent. Jesse over at Killbeat Music in Vancouver, BC, didn't know this, but he sent Cameron Latimer's upcoming album Fallen Apart anyway. Perfect.

‘Fallen Apart’ is the debut record from Vancouver singer-songwriter Cameron Latimer. Cameron had previously been in a local band The Seams but is now on his own. He attended Malaspina Uni where he met the two collaborators on this record Rueben Degroot and Adam Dobres who were also in the aforementioned band.

With twangy baselines and lyrics like "pass me the bottle and hide my guns ‘cause my horse has got an empty saddle," this Vancouver based singer-songwriter sounds like he's straight from the rural prairies. Traditional country themes mix with folksy ballads on this debut album.

For me, routine equals comfort. I crave feeling the familiar touches, smelling the familiar smells and most importantly, hearing the familiar sounds. The last few weeks have disturbed my routine in ways I could have never imagined.

Cameron Latimer makes country the way country used to be made before country became what '70s rock used to be except for all the God-thanking in the credits. Frequently punctuated by producer John Ellis' unapologetically weeping pedal steel, Latimer is also rattling the gate of the gilded palace of '60s California country that made Gram Parsons a latter-day legend.

‘Oh, God, that was a terrible show,” Cameron Latimer laughs over the phone, recalling a gig he played at the old Sidetrack Café a couple of years ago. “That night I got off stage and I was pissed off. We had hired this drummer from Winnipeg because our drummer bailed at the last minute for that tour, so he drove out there on his motorbike and met us.

There’s nearly a minute of sorrowful pedal steel guitar crying out at the beginning of “Empty Saddle,” the opener on Cameron Latimer’s debut, before Latimer’s smooth voice glides into range. There’s no rush to get to the chorus here, and that attitude serves the music well as Latimer sings songs of broken hearts and broken minds, bad times and worse times and surviving them all.

With the exception of the catchy roots pop of the title track, Latimer spends most of Fallen Apart exploring the more traditional side of country including Lyle Lovett style country swing on High Lonesome. Along with age-old themes of lost love, lost lives and lost ranches what country album worth its weight in manure doesn’t serve up a drinking song?