Highway Houses by Pat LePoidevin

Highway Houses is an album by Pat LePoidevin. I have been listening to it steadily for a week or so now since I found it in one of the bargain buckets at Coop Radio.

Unbelievable that this album was destined for a Coop Radio CD castoff sale - other gems discovered as a result of my late night rummaging include We Are Enfant Terrible and Lovely Killbots.

Hey, I say this not as any kind of hero but merely to point out there are imperfections in the Coop Radio music committee. But hey Coop's a community station with limited funds. A paid up Music Committee person would make the difference though I'm sure.

Anyhow back to Highway Houses. I listened to the opening track North a few weeks back as I was sorting through CDs for the early morning show The 6.57 to St John's, a temporary and new show on Coop Radio.

As I pottered around in the kitchen with the CD playing - a great way to study music by the way. If the music is unsuitable it will soon stop you from what you are doing be it washing up or preparing dinner. And although I am not sure how far I got into the CD before I returned to pick up the CD case and study this Pat LePoidevin bloke, it must easily have been half way through.

Another early listen to the album really got me - with the 'hey' chant in Mary. It reminded me of a kind of indigenous style of singing - the type I have seen on the streets of Vancouver during various protests and celebrations.

It is such a subtle yet brilliant album - right down to the artwork, one of the Highway Houses has a mountain peak for a roof top and blends easily with my memories of road trips to the interior of British Columbia.

It should come of no surprise then that Pat LePoidevin is from Princeton. It really impressed that Pat was born in just 1987. It made me think that he's the same age as some of fellow students that I went to radio school with, and immediately I started to think of my BCIT pals Caroline, Matt another Pat and Scott, and them discovering and listening to Pat LePoidevin.

One thing I'd like to know for sure is the correct spelling of LePoidevin. Is it as I just wrote it or is it Le Poidevin or Lepoidevin or L'Epoidevin or something else?

The title track of the album Highway Houses is one of those songs that gets deep inside of you - it actually gives me the chills. Highway Houses is Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska territory. My CD player is beginning to die and jump and skip and it just spat as '97' played - the skip happened just as the track was making a chord progression and having started to skip myself to the CD player to eject the CD the spat ended and I stood amazed at the beauty of the song.

Highway Houses is a beautiful piece of art.