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Nowhere with You: The East Coast Anthems of Joel Plaskett, the Emergency and Thrush Hermit

by Josh O'Kane

Every city has a few hidden destinations where hormonally charged teenagers congregate to drink, smoke, fight, and screw around without the threat of adult intervention. Though Joel Plaskett never really partook in the debauchery – he was more passionate about music – he named his 2007 concept album after Ashtray Rock, his own teen hangout in the quiet Halifax suburb of Clayton Park.

JuneReviews_NowhereWithYou_CoverHis romanticized rock opera about a love triangle between two bandmates and a mystery girl crystallizes why Plaskett is one of Canada’s most beloved indie musicians: he captured the volatility of teen friendship while paying homage (with a few inside jokes) to a side of urban Maritime life that had been widely ignored by previous generations of artists. However, just because a musician can fill sold-out clubs with raucous fans singing along doesn’t mean they’re ideal candidates for biographical treatment.

One of the guilty pleasures of music memoirs and biographies is contained in the salacious details. So what do you do with a former teetotaling, happily married, all-around good guy? In Nowhere with You, Josh O’Kane’s new biography of Plaskett, the Globe and Mail reporter builds an entertaining portrait of an artist who has succeeded by sticking to his values and, even rarer, has done so without leaving his East Coast home.

O’Kane places Plaskett’s decision to remain in Nova Scotia within a historical context, explaining how generations of musicians, including his peers in Sloan, have felt it necessary, career-wise, to leave. Although Plaskett’s reason for staying put is simple – “I never really wanted to be anywhere else” – O’Kane argues that his success is a critical caveat for any artist thinking about goin’ down the road.

Through exhaustive research and interviews with Plaskett, his managers, bookers, other industry types, and fellow musicians – including former members of his first band, Thrush Hermit – O’Kane shows how a lanky 13-year-old aspiring guitarist grew up to become a well-respected producer and performer. O’Kane is clearly a fan, but remains a critical observer. He captures moments of tension: the quick rise (and fall) of Halifax in the 1990s as “the next Seattle”; unsuccessful record deals; and in-band fighting and reunions. There are the necessary life lessons: Thrush Hermit turned down a lucrative opportunity to be on the Dumb and Dumber soundtrack because they thought Jim Carrey wasn’t “cool,” but an older Plaskett licensed a song to Zellers because he realized he was now supporting others with his income.

Even though there aren’t any piles of coke or groupies hanging around backstage, Nowhere with You proves that if a writer is given full access to an artist and does their homework, the outcome can be just as fascinating

 

Reviewer: Sue Carter

Publisher: ECW Press

DETAILS

Price: $18.95

Page Count: 232 pp

Format: Paper

ISBN: 978-1-77041-237-8

Released: April

Issue Date: June 2016

Categories: Memoir & Biography