Falling Fences has been moving beyond the friendly confines of McGurk’s over the past couple of years, especially since songwriter, singer, guitarist Sean Allen Canan has moved from a road-based lifestyle to one centered in St. Louis. With a growing family and the success of his ever-evolving covers project, The Voodoo Players, Canan’s slid into a comfortable creative space and the August release of the next Falling Fences album is an example of that.
In collaboration with fellow singer/songwriter Joe Stickley and Mighty Pines bassist John Hussung, Canan’s curated a Sunday evening sensation with Falling Fences, which combines covers and originals in the live setting of a raucous Irish pub, their cover material often accompanied by lusty singalongs. For their latest release, they’ve concentrated solely on their own material and they’ll be releasing an album of that work in just over two months. We check in with Canan for a second time this year, with notes on that CD, his current workflow and, yes, the beer that bore his group’s name a couple of months back, Falling Fences Irish Red Ale.
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First let’s talk beer. What’s the backstory with that project?
I lived in Columbia, Missouri, for all of my 20s and forged many friendships there. A lot of them had big dreams, some people fizzled and got “stuck” while others went on to push their ambitions into realities. My friends Josh Bowles, Judson Ball and crew started Logboat Brewing Co. are a prime example of turning those late-night whiskey dreams into a staple of the Missouri beer scene. We were in a situation where we began working together to promote the band at John D. McGurk’s in Soulard already (with Logboat specials), so when we pitched the idea to run a “Falling Fences Irish Ale” for St. Patrick’s Day, it became a perfect collaboration as it felt like a safe business play. (People love Irish beer in March!). Hopefully we can do a run of it annually around St. Paddy’s Day.
Secondly, music. Who is on the Falling Fences disc? Who recorded? What’re the tracks? Originals and covers, or all your own material?
Falling Fences is a project with myself and songwriter Joe Stickley. We’ve been working together for over 15 years and have always recorded at Wil Reeves’ Centro Cellar Studio in Columbia. In fact, Wil and I have a longtime band called Bockman who served as Joe’s backing band for three albums as “Joe Stickley’s Blue Print.” We still record with the same cast of characters from those days (Andrew Weir, Danny Carroll and Wil) however, this album features several St. Louis musicians: Joe Winze of Madahoochi, John Hussung from the Mighty Pines, multi-instrumentalist/producer Paul Niehaus IV, and a horn section of Adam Hucke, Charlie Cerpa and Kevin O’Conner. All of the songs are originals.
Considering your multiple projects, where does Falling Fences reside in your daily thoughts? That may seem a weird way of putting it, so… how do you balance all the projects and think “ah, it’s time for some energy here,” or “let’s some time into this now?”
Since I have been off the road with The Schwag, the Voodoo Players and Falling Fences have settled into a nice balance. The band has sort’ve always been a passion project for me which has for stretches of time, been sustained by the Sunday night gig alone. However, making this record has consumed a lot more of my creative energy and the band seems to be really picking up some steam in the last two years while we’ve been working so intensively on this batch of songs.
What’s your Sunday night gig mean to you? Is it a bit of wind in your sails to know there’s a diehard group of people who wanna sing along with you on Sunday nights? And I assume that your band cohorts may feel the same?
The Sunday night gig is so special for us in so many ways. Two weeks after the album is released at Delmar Hall, we celebrate 10 years at McGurk’s by performing for three nights over Labor Day weekend. The gig has become a welcomed routine for the musicians and our family like group of regulars who treat the show almost like going to church every Sunday, but at an Irish Pub stocked full of Guinness!
What else should we know about the disc: ________?
Falling Fences 2 is a bit of a concept album that Joe Stickley dreamt up involving two Native-American outlaws named “the Hawk and the Dove.” The two come from rival tribes who flee their communities during the Civil War and take refuge by riding riverboat on the Mississippi before eventually meeting, falling in love, and turning to a life of crime which begins to take control of their lives before ending tragically. Joe is a master at bringing elements of the story into his songs while keeping them universal and timeless without being stuck in the historical setting.
Track Listing: 1) The Dove’s Lament; 2) Parlor Room; 3) No One Loves You; 4) Break It Up; 5) Dream Lightning; 6) Anna Lee; 7) This Side of Brightness; 8) Mind the Dark ; 9) The Hawk & the Dove / Bleeding Heart ; 10) Crooks Like Us.
The Falling Fences 2album release is slated for Delmar Hall on Saturday, August 18. More info here.
