Good, Pinsent, Keelor

It doesn't get any more Canadian than this, an unlikely collaboration among one of the country's most beloved actors, Gordon Pinsent, and two of its most beloved musicians, Blue Rodeo's Greg Keelor and the Sadies' Travis Good. It began with Pinsent reciting his poetry for a documentary film on his life, and the idea sprouted to set some of that work to music. With Keelor and Good adapting it to the kind of hazy acoustic sounds fans of Keelor's solo albums will recognize, Down & Out in UpAlong plays like a visit to those grizzled uncles your parents preferred you stayed away from. Pinsent's words vividly evoke memories of his Newfoundland youth, especially "Shadows in the Sun" and "Peter Easton," but there's also room made for Good to inject some downhome picking, as on rollicking instrumental "Super Chicken." As a raconteur, Pinsent has few peers in Canada, and Down & Out in UpAlong proves that he can hold his own in the music world as well.