Ian Farish

Ian Farish

Ian Farish has spent a lifetime laying the groundwork for his recently released CD, Soul Songs. A father of four, school music teacher, and busy multi-instrumentalist and band member in Victoria’s world-class jazz scene, Farish has written a hypnotic, deeply personal song cycle of wise, well-crafted originals. He’s an evocative vocalist, and Soul Songs is an understated beauty.

Produced by studio wizard Joby Baker, who has worked with Cowboy Junkies, Mae Moore, The Weakerthans, and The Bills, Soul Songs is a series of thoughtful, melodic narratives framed by clever arrangements ranging from the folk lullaby Little Piece of Me to choir, strings, and horn-punctuated pop gems.

Farish’s ballads echo previous triumphs of keening crooners like Chris de Burgh and more soulful, contemporary pop singers like Rob Thomas. He also adds tenor and baritone sax, trombone, and trumpet to ear candy cuts featuring grittier vocal readings.

The studio band includes bassist Rick May, a veteran of tours and recordings with Rickie Lee Jones, Taj Mahal and members of the Police, Little Feat, and Jimi Hendrix Experience. Joby Baker plays bass and drums on six tracks and guitar, percussion, piano, Moog synthesizer, Wurlitzer organ, and Hammond B3 organ too. A host of Victoria-based musicians, including drummer Johnny Andrews (currently touring with Teagan and Sarah) also contribute to an atmospheric collection of songs that flow together while showcasing Farish’s wise lyrics and tender vocals.

“This album has been a long time coming, and it speaks of the challenges of balancing being a dad, being a husband, being an artist, working one job and sometimes more than one, and on the side honouring my dreams as an artist, building my castles one brick at a time,” Farish explains. “It was an amazing break to find Joby Baker to produce this album. It felt like I’d been doing my homework, musically, for years to prepare me to work with him. “I taught full time while I was writing and recording the album,” Farish continues. “Sometimes I’d work 7 a.m. until noon and then go to the studio and put in 10 or 12 hours and then sleep for a few and go to teach again and then go back to the studio, and that would go on for days. It was incredibly intense at times, but incredibly nourishing. The album took just over a year to complete. We’d do two or three songs at a time and spend three or four days per song. Finishing an album like that is like building a house. It takes amazing patience.”

The CD-opening Soul Song stands out, as does Farish’s gentle, soulful duo reading of If You Don’t Love Me with Cindy Davis. Forgive Me is a wise, deeply personal gem, while Pennsylvania sets a friend’s poem about the Amish school shootings in an evocative musical framework. Baker and Farish team-up to produce the horn-driven Hard to Get, a clever, political lyric that is reminiscent of John Lennon’s best songwriting. Let It Rest follows with its own Beatleseque echoes, and the production builds to Stones to Step On and the concluding track’s hypnotic string and choir-propelled groove.

Soul Songs is a smart collection of a dozen originals. Music studies at Queens, where his college band played Kingston’s club circuit in the 90s preceded Farish’s move to Victoria and work teaching music at St. Michael’s University School. He released his debut recording, Telling Stories in 2002 and appeared regularly with Hermann’s Monday Night Big Band and other jazz groups in Victoria.

Farish’s current band includes drummer Jeff Mitchelmore, Bonnie Davison, and multi-instrumentalist Jonathan Bell, whose friendship stretches back to Farish’s college years at Queen’s. The band toured B.C. and Alberta in August 2007 and followed with a cross Canada tour in the winter of 2008. Don’t miss them!