Quebec Folk Group Sussex Offers Up Gentle, Comforting Jewel With “Shine Down Every Day” From Shine Album
There are tranquil pieces of music that bring back memories of a gentler time with simple, solid musicianship and pristine laid-back vocals. Quebec-based folk duo Sussex have gone to that time-honoured well wonderfully with the precious, peaceful “Shine Down Every Day” from their latest album Shine. It’s a song vocalist and guitarist Rob Lutes says resembles a “modern day Tin Pan Alley song” inspired by a tune dating back to 1908.
Lutes, who gives workshops on American popular music at festivals in addition to groups and students, says the 1908 song “Shine On Harvest Moon” was the catalyst for “Shine Down Every Day.” The vaudeville tandem of Nora Bayes and Jack Norworth, the latter who also penned “Take Me Out To The Ballgame,” had their song often covered throughout the decades. Leon Redbone covered “Shine On Harvest Moon” on his 1977 Double Time album. Both Redbone and Lutes (although at different times) learned fingerstyle guitar from Mose Scarlett in Toronto.
While playing the 1908 tune almost obsessively at his home in Pointe-Claire, Quebec, Lutes reflected on his younger children “out playing there under the big willow tree when they were small.” That nostalgic feeling of what once was combined with the vaudeville song melded into “this new (but sounding kind of old) melody,” resulting in “Shine Down Every Day” written in roughly 20 minutes.
“I love exploring the arc of American (and Canadian) music history, and sometimes it bleeds into my own songs,” Lutes says.
Although structurally and melodically different than the 1908 song, “Shine Down Every Day” contains “the spirit of the tune and a hint of that glorious time in American music, the early 20th century, with some naivete and simple wisdom,” according to Lutes. The single brings to mind Neck and Neck, the charming 1990 album by Chet Atkins and Mark Knopfler as well as Knopfler’s short but terribly sweet side project The Notting Hillbillies. Lutes’ words paint a memory of yesteryear as pianist/vibraphonist (and Sussex member) Michael Emenau adds delicious accents. Guests on the single include pedal steel guitarist Joe Grass and upright bass player Morgan Moore, who both give it a serene, cozy, campfire-esque vibe.
I was looking through the window at a bird perched high on a warm summer day
Sitting in the maple by the garden’s edge where the kids used to play
How they used to run around singing songs, how they moved unaware
Those days are gone but that melody still lingers in the air
The single is from Sussex’s latest album Shine, the 10-track record the tandem of Lutes and Emenau (who both grew up in Rothesay, New Brunswick) wrote most of the material for. Shine is the followup to 2019’s The Ocean Wide and 2015’s Parade Day. “Shine Down Every Day” was also the basis of a music video created by videographer Derek Olive. The video features Olive’s two daughters as it looks back at life’s simple pleasures and how quickly those moments elapse, permanently etched on one’s memory.
Now with “Shine Down Every Day,” Sussex should see fans lured by a sound that is new and old at the same time, evoking images Lutes says of “when the great writers were writing with prominent melodies to capture ears….I hope this song does that too.”
Mission accomplished.
Hi, Rob! Good to meet you! Care to introduce yourself to the readers?
Sure. I love music. I grew up in New Brunswick with a tight group of friends that did too, and we played together in a band all through high school – kind of a throwback ’60s vibe. Michael Emenau from Sussex was also in this group. Then at university in Nova Scotia I started writing songs and gigging a bit. And that has continued over the years and 10 or so albums and many tours and shows. I’ve lived in Montreal since 1992, longer than anywhere else. It’s a great city to tour from… and a great city to see music in. I went to see The War on Drugs last night. Adam Granduciel has a little Dylan in his delivery. Really dig that band.
“Shine Down Every Day” was inspired by the 1908 song “Shine On Harvest Moon.” What drew you to this piece of music, and how did it influence the creation of your own song?
For me “Shine on Harvest Moon” is just one of those magical tunes. Harmonically, it is really quite unique… I play it in the key of C and it starts in C minor for the verses, which have a real minor blues feel, and then out of nowhere comes this chorus in C major with a very unusual, catchy melody. Then you have the story of the couple out together on a dark night and the guy asking the moon to shine so his lover will stay out with him. So that combination – the sweet story and the haunting melody make for an irresistible package, especially in the hands of someone like Leon Redbone, who brought a little more cool to it in his version in the 1970s.
I had learned this song for a workshop I was giving on that early Tin Pan Alley era of music, and in learning it and singing it, I kind of got addicted to it… happens sometimes with certain special songs. That phrase was in my head and just kind of the soundtrack to my life for a few days. So when this impulse to write “Shine Down Every Day” hit me looking out the window, there was that word “shine” floating around, and it worked in that tune. So I owe a thanks to Jack Norworth and his then wife Nora Bayes, the writers of “Shine on Harvest Moon” for my song.
You’ve mentioned that the nostalgic feeling of watching your children play inspired part of the song. How do personal memories and experiences shape your songwriting process?
For me, emotions feed the best songs. With “Shine Down Every Day” that feeling of nostalgia and longing and a little slice of melody took me to the guitar with pen and paper, and instead of missing it or saying I would write it down later, I was smart enough (or lucky enough) to sit down and write it right away. It came out fast and a good part of the song was written in 20 minutes. That’s what I have to do… honour the impulse to write the song when the emotion and the idea hits. If I let it dissipate, I end up chasing the ghost of a great song all day trying to get it back. And I never do. But usually when I write, that tug of emotion is the first thing I need to grab onto and kind of keep alive as I write the song.
You’ve been compared to artists like Chet Atkins and Mark Knopfler. How do these influences shape your musical style, and what do you think makes your sound unique?
Those are two of my favourites, and I have certainly borrowed from both – and many others – over the years. I remember I had a Chet Atkins album in my 20s and I planned to sit down and learn all of the tunes on it – for a bit of fun and to improve my fingerstyle. Well, I got through one song and realized that my heart wasn’t in it, but man, it made me appreciate his mastery even more. Both of them are, or were in Chet’s case, phenomenal fingerstyle guitarists. From a young age, I decided to play fingerstyle. There were so many rock and roll soloers out there, I thought maybe I could differentiate… even then I was looking for an angle. But I loved it too, the idea that you could do so much as a guitarist using your fingers. I took a few lessons from a legendary Toronto player, Mose Scarlett. He had this percussive, rhythmic style, where he would use his thumb for a thumping bassline and his fingers for melody and chords. And he played lots of old tunes from the 1920s and 30s. I was smitten by his sound, and I guess I have never gotten over that… so I just go deeper and deeper into it. It’s on SHINE in songs like “Bye Bye Blues” and “Under Your Tongue” – that driving sound. But there’s lots of fingerstyle throughout the album. A lot of fingerstyle players use plastic or metal fingerpicks but I just love the sound and the feel of my fingers on the strings, and that’s how Mose played. So, despite battling blisters over the years, I kept going that way. At this point, the fingers don’t get blisters. I think Michel Pepin did a masterful job mixing this album… you can hear the guitar right through, but it sits in the mix with all the instruments in a natural way, which is what we wanted when we recorded it.
You give workshops on American popular music. How has your deep knowledge of music history influenced the songwriting on your latest album Shine?
I think it has increased my appreciation for the diversity of songs that have been hits over the centuries. So many odd tunes, great tunes! But ones you might not expect, with silly and funny and hooky ideas – think “Tiptoe through the Tulips” from 1929, or “Dream a Little Dream of Me” from 1931… or even going back to ragtime pieces like “Maple Leaf Rag” from 1899 and all those John Philip Sousa marches, even back to “Yankee Doodle” from the 1750s.. unusual little gems that have endured. There are melodies that surprise you, or impress you, in one way or another. And then you hit some devastatingly beautiful songs like Nat King Cole’s recording of “Nature Boy” in 1948, written by Eden Ahbez. So, there is a long tradition of breaking rules and making beautiful things. The world of American (and Canadian) popular music is so vast, that you are always finding gems. So, for SHINE I was really letting myself play with ideas and consciously go back into a more melodic headspace. Melody was king in the Tin Pan Alley era — lyrics too, certainly, and the blend of the two – but the melody kind of had to capture people. So, on songs like “Shine Down Every Day”, “We Were in Love”, and “Take You Back”, I put myself in the mindset of making melodies that might bring a smile or a tear to put it in very Tin Pan Alley language. It was a lot of fun.