For those unaware, We Might Not Tell Everybody This is the third record from Stranger Still and is filled with more musical settings by composer Pete Johnston of poems by Canadian poet Alden Nowlan (1933-1983). Johnston and Nowlan share a birthplace of Hants County, Nova Scotia, and the poems tell stories of the people, seasons, and landscape of the Atlantic coast of Canada.

From the liner notes by Allan Cooper: “An old friend of Alden and Claudine Nowlan once told me that each time he visited their home, there was music playing. Our best poets seem to have a sense that the music of words is crucial to a successful poem. Otherwise, the poem will not take flight for the reader. In We Might Not Tell Everybody This, composer Pete Johnston has handled Nowlan’s words with grace and delicacy. The music is quite minimal, but is shaped in such a way that it catches the emotive quality of Nowlan’s words; sometimes a sense of aloneness, sometimes joy or loss, but always with sensitivity and attentiveness.”

1. Warren Pryor
2. The Mosherville Road
3. If I Could Be Certain, God
4. Day’s End
5. Dry Spell
6. A Pinch Or Two Of Dust
7. The Dog Returns From The Woods
8. It’s Good To Be Here
9. Land and Sea
10. Stars
11. Walking Toward The Bus Station

The Nova Scotia-born, Toronto-based musician and composer Pete Johnston under the guise of Stranger Still opens his new work on the alluring Celtic folk sound of Warren Pryor and the affecting The Mosherville Road and then we get gifted the mesmerizing If I Could Be Certain, God, the impassioned Day’s End and the veritable gossamer of Dry Spell is brought forth.

Along next is the harmonically supple A Pinch Or Two Of Dust and the rhythmically melodious The Dog Returns From The Woods, and they are in turn backed seamlessly by the sentimental It’s Good To Be Here, the upright bass, gently fed Land and Sea, the set rounding out on the dulcetly emotive Stars, coming to a close on the dulcetly sublime Walking Toward The Bus Station.

Musicians:
Mim Adams - vocals
Randi Helmers - vocals
Rob Clutton - string bass
Pete Johnston - acoustic guitar, lap steel, vocals

Guests:
Sarah Frank - violin
Mŕiri Chaimbeul - harp
Andrew Killawee - harmonium

Official Purchase Link

www.petejohnstonmusic.com