Trevor Tchir

“If you’re looking for a folk rock energy, check out 'Gwendolyn' (Sun & Moon) from Trevor Tchir. ...The up tempo energy from the organ is really magical. Fans of 70s style folk rock will find a lot to like with this energetic new homage to a love.”

“Sky Locked Land answers the American Songbook with a Canadian volume, seeking to project that kind of universality through the specificity of stories and the beauty of craft....With the release of Sky Locked Land comes a startling integration-a sense of Tchir completely inhabiting his work. The stories largely converge on themes of collective memory, community and haunting dislocation, stretched across the elements of earth and sky, and are counterpointed and echoed by the warmth of the music, whether polished and full or loose and spare. Perhaps the key to the album's vibrancy is a sort of spiritual interplay between the stories-rooted in truth, drawn from his own experiences or those of family members-and the music, created with an ever expanding circle of musicians Tchir counts as community.”

“Trevor’s songs have always touched on the state of the country, whether it be sustainability or just the people he’s met, but this time around he’s speaking softer, letting his eye and tongue tell everyone’s story...Tchir creates characters and relives moments that could apply to any of us, and with a fleshed out folk/rootsy backdrop, it’s hard not to give in to the swells of emotion. The songs emit the energy of a room full of friends playing music – the arrangements feature strings, horns, banjo, steel, harmonica, accordion and countless other instruments – but Trevor also knows when to pull back. The amount of maturation Tchir offers up this time around is remarkable, so much so that the undoubted comparisons to other artists sort of seem hollow. Trevor does his best Eric Bachmann impression on the delightful (albeit sad) The Sweeter Air, and I’d be hard pressed not to mention the distinct Calexico feel of the record, but the songs reveal too much of Tchir’s life to be considered knock off. Whether it’s a touching road trip (Are We There Yet?) or simply a political analysis masked by an every day event (Tearing Down the Garden), this collection of songs is carefully penned to let you into Trevor’s world - the little details and emotion that runs through songs like Stones in the Ground make you wonder is these seemingly fictional tales are actually a part of Tchir’s life that he offers up to anyone that takes the time to listen - but also show that we are all here together. Say what you will, but there's comfort in that, no matter how bleak things may seem. ”

“Tchir takes the best of Calexico's Joey Burns' The Black Light-era quaver and applies that subdued, iconic style to our Alberta situation...Tchir's lyrics dig deep.”

“Even when he strums alone, Tchir is surrounded by people. His lyrics are populated with characters who are both universal and intimate: poets who waitress, not-even-exes wondering why love never got a foothold, and grandparents building a nation and a place in it. In Tchir’s hands place, time and relationships become characters, too, with their own agendas and idiosyncrasies...Like Bob Dylan or James Taylor, Tchir’s velvet-and-smoke voice sounds the same indefinable age throughout all his recordings, which seamlessly weave ’70s Tapestry sounds with bluesy-country touches; his allegiance is to the time-honoured art of evoking emotion through storytelling. ”

“Wooden Castles Fall [is] a rootsy folk album with gentle breezes of pedal steel, carefree bursts of harmonica, leather-worn vocals and bushels of references to Alberta...Tchir is a welcome addition to Edmonton's rich musical scene.”

“Wooden Castles Fall is a singular body of work that is a testament to Tchir's personal integrity...It's anything but another off-the-shelf concoction. Instead it's a fairly sophisticated vision that reworks the stuff of everyday experiences. Most songs are singularly Albertan in character and spirit, but at the same time they are universal in perspective...He's created many prairie images and tales with poetic lyrics that are at times humoured, tender and insightful. And the instumentation is spare but evocative...There's a strong core of philosophical truth and artistic integrity at the heart of this album, the kind that could be around for generations when other popular mainstream pieces have faded into obscurity.”

“4 stars (November) When Trevor Tchir put out his first album, The Way I Feel Today (1999), he had a kind of freewheeling approach a style clearly inspired by the likes of Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen. At heart, this Edmonton-raised Ottawan is still a singer-songwriter with an acoustic guitar, but he has taken his brand of folk music a step further. Instead of doing a bare-bones recording in his pal's home studio (the 1999 album came out of Peter Webb's Nelson Street Studio), Tchir laid down the tracks for November at Raven Street Studios, and he invited 11 other musicians to help out. The result, on impressive songs such as Elevate Achilles and Soul Sister is something even Dylan would enjoy, and Bob might just envy this singer's young vocal chords.”