They’ve been the talk of the country since they stole the televised Juno show and performed on Parliament Hill on Canada Day.
So says Roots and Blues Festival artistic director Peter North as he introduces one of this year’s festival headliners – Luke Doucet and Melissa McClelland, known as Whitehorse.
“It’s one of these stories you love to hear; a perfect union between great talent and great people,” says North enthusiastically. “The total is greater than the sum of its parts.”
These two acclaimed musicians perform without a drummer, a keyboard player, violinist or even bass player – just Doucet and McClelland. But their live show offers a full- band sound, featuring live loops, bits and pieces of percussion and swapping guitars left, right and centre on stage.
By the time Whitehorse took to the stage at Toronto’s esteemed Massey Hall for their sold-out debut in 2013, the edge of the ledge effect of their earliest shows had transformed into a nimble ballet of moving instruments, layers of percussion, voice and keys, layered upon each other.
McClelland and Doucet had accomplished solo careers, playing in each other’s bands and in Sarah McLaughlin’s band. When McClelland recorded her first solo record 13 years ago, Doucet produced it, and the two that followed.
They married 10 years ago and in 2011, formed their own folk-rock band, calling it Whitehorse with the intention of readily identifying it as Canadian.
“We were talking about the whole idea of Americana music and how many legendary Canadian artists and bands there are and we thought it would be cool to come up with some geographical area,” says McClelland. “We had just been to Whitehorse and there’s something special and magical.”
McClelland gravitated to music as early as she can remember – not only listening and experiencing the joy that music can inspire.
“I always wanted to crack the code of how you make music, the creativity and the mathematics behind that,” she says. “If I was in a home that had a guitar or a piano, I always gravitated to it to try to figure it out.”
Fully expecting to one day crack that code, McLelland says she never experience a single defining moment that told her music would be her life – unlike Doucet.
“Luke has a very specific memory of being 12 or 13 when an older cousin showed him how to play a very simple Kinks song on his guitar,” she says. “That blew his mind; he had figured that was only for rock stars.”
So began Doucet’s love affair with the guitar.
“And that has never stopped; it’s so inspiring to be able to play with him,” McLelland says, describing their growing personal relationship as having been very organic. “Now we’re together, we can lean on each other and feed each other creatively. It has opened up a whole new world for both of us.”
The songwriting however, remains a solitary endeavour, with both artists retreating to opposite ends of their home. Then they share the results with each other and have their say about them.
“Sometimes it ends up being a co-write, sometime we leave it as it is or set it aside.”
McLelland says inspiration can be a fickle thing.
“You really have to dig deep; for me, it’s always important to treat it like a job and push myself as a writer,” she says.
The couple have delved into Delta blues, something McLelland calls tricky territory, with very important stories told from a very different place – something she and Doucet respect but inject with their own flavour.
“We take those songs with their chord structures and deep stories and because of the looping we do live, it’s a really good format to bring them to life,” she says. “Blues songs gave us the freedom to play with the melodies and to groove while still being able to hear the songs.”
Both McLelland and Doucet have played Roots and Blues individually and are excited to be appearing together as Whitehorse.
Whitehorse released their debut self-titled effort in 2011 to critical raves. Since then the two have been building a discography that includes an EP of material sung in French, another EP of choice, classic Canadian covers, and two delicious slates of originals that received raves on both sides of the border, Leave No Bridge Unburned and The Fate of the World Depends on This Kiss. Their latest album, The Northern South, Vol. 1 was released in May.
Thrilled by their growing success, McLelland says neither she nor Doucet take it for granted.
“It feels like so much fun, so satisfying,” she laughs. “It feels like we must be breaking some rules.”
Hear them do that at the 2016 Roots and Blues that plays out Aug. 19 to 21 at the Salmon Arm Fairgrounds. Tickets are available at www.rootsandblues.ca or by calling 250-833-4096.
