Montreal, QC-based country-folk five-piece, The Wildwood Family released their latest EP, 4 par 5 on June 22, 2021. Now, they have unveiled her cover of “Smile Back At Me”, a song that Sophie Grégoire Trudeau self-wrote for her daughter and performed acapella in 2016 during an event for Martin Luther King Day.
“We thought that the lyrics had an important message to deliver about family and we wanted to give the song back its well deserved credentials,” explained the group. The three female lead singers are all mothers and the song spoke to them in an immense way. “Also, we thought it was pretty cool that the first lady composed a very sexy-bluesy song!”
Produced, mixed, and mastered by Simon Walls at Sophronik Studio in Montréal, The Wildwood Family’s full production cover of Smile Back At Me breathes new life into the song. With unmatched harmonies and the rich textures of the double bass and guitars, the feeling behind the lyrics is completely amplified by the soulful, emotive rendition.
Check out “Smile Back at Me” below, and find out more about The Wildwood Family via our Five Questions With segment.
Care to introduce yourself to our readers?
We are The Wildwood Family, a Montreal-based cover band. We are specialized in country-folk repertoire but we are currently working on our own compositions.
Tell us a bit about your music and writing style.
The band is well-known for the rich vocal harmonies we add to every song we perform. Our work method is very family-like. Since we’re very close friends (and two of the band members are siblings) we usually mix rehearsal days with dinner and pool parties!
How have you been keeping creative during the Pandemic?
To be honest, we haven’t been very creative during the first year of the Pandemic. Virtual meetings didn’t seem to work out well for us. But, slowly, some strong creative ideas suddenly emerged from what we could call “the lethargic covid era” and we ended up recording a great EP of 4 francophone cover songs and we are currently working on a full-length album of original material.
If you were asked to suggest only one of your songs for someone to hear, which would it be?
We would have to mention two songs (sorry!). First, it would be “Wildwood Flower”, composed and popularized by the Carter Family because it is the first song we’ve performed on stage as a band. The second title would be “Smile back at me”, the famous song written (and performed) by our First Lady, Sophie Gregoire Trudeau. It’s the most recent song we’ve launched and we’re quite happy with how it turned out!
Canadian Beats is all about Canadian music, so who are your current favourite Canadian bands/ artists?
David Lafleche’s “Everyday Son” has been on repeat mode since it was launched. We are also big fans of CHANCES, Elliot Maginot and his new masterpiece “Easy Morning” and everything from Royal Canoe and Martha Wainwright (to name a few, but we could go on and on)!
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