Growing up and playing music in sleepy Oshawa, Wayne Petti and Paul Lowman, the two founding members of Cuff the Duke, thought they stumbled upon the next big thing by combining their love of punk rock with the good old-fashioned country grit of singers such as Hank Williams and Johnny Cash. Alt-country, they’d call it. They’d be stars. Ahem.
When they started playing shows at the venerable Horseshoe Tavern, they caught on when they heard people comparing their sound to bands such as Wilco, who’d pioneered the sound years before.
“It was Craig Laskey (one of the owners), and he said, ‘You guys are like Wilco meets …’ and he rattled off all these bands. We were like, ‘That’s amazing…. Oh wait, so we didn’t come up with it? Oh, OK,’” says Petti, vocalist and guitarist for the band.
Maybe they didn’t invent alt-country, but, as their newest album demonstrates, they do it very well. Their latest effort is the band’s strongest statement to date and has been a long time coming.
“Essentially it’s been done for months,” Petti explains.
“We signed to Paperbag, sorted out that whole deal, so it’s been a long time coming, and it’s great to finally get it out there.”
The album is called Morning Comes, the band’s fifth album, and it’s easily their most ambitious both vocally and musically, with complex harmonies and layers of sound that take the band into new sonic territory.
“To us, that’s the most important thing. With this record, we were really expanding, and that was a goal of ours: really just expanding on the foundation we already had,” Petti explains.
Morning Comes is billed as a “concept album” in the band’s press materials, but really the songs are similar thematically and constitute part one of a two-part album series.
Part one explores love and loss and loneliness — fine material for a country-tinged band — and part two will come out the other side and be more hopeful and energetic.
“It was just the easiest way to put it [using ‘concept’]. Personally, we felt we were on the brink of something and that everything that has happened in the past helped us get to this point,” says Petti.
“We’re getting older, going through life, and as you get older, people in your life go away or pass away or grow apart, and the songs have that element of coming to grips with becoming an adult and that shift that happens.”
No, it’s not a total downer, dudes. There are a few sombre tracks, but the mood is more reflective and understanding than stewing in a pot of discontent.
“It’s not conceptual in an obvious way,” Petti explains.
“We hope people can read into them what they want and get something out of it. My favourite songs have always been like that.” Back as producer is Greg Keelor, of Blue Rodeo, continuing in their collaboration that began when Cuff the Duke toured with the Toronto stalwarts years ago.
“He’s very passionate, and it’s really inspiring when a guy like that is getting behind what you’re doing,” says Petti. “I wouldn’t say he’s intense, but you get in there and he knows what he wants. And he really respects our vision, so he was great at bringing those two things together.”
The name of the band, says Petti, is from a T-shirt he wore while performing in his hometown, as a solo artist, and it stuck. Cuff the Duke released their debut album, Life Stories for Minimum Wage, on Three-Gut Records in 2002.
Morning Comes hit stands on Oct. 4, and the band is now on a cross-Canada tour that will bring them to the Horseshoe Tavern on Nov. 25 and 26. For information go to www.cufftheduke.ca.