Contrary to popular belief, Canadian band Elliott Brood is not a person.
“On a nightly basis, we get someone coming up to [Casey Laforet, the guitarist] or me and saying, ‘Hey Elliott, loved the show!’” recalled Mark Sasso, lead singer of the alt country band. “I don’t think we’ll ever lose that…like ‘man I love that guy, he’s so great!’”
The name Elliott Brood was a pseudonym Sasso was using originally when he began playing solo. It began as a homage to a friend’s band named Wayne Omaha, and took off from there.
“I didn’t want to be the Mark Sasso Band or anything like that,” he said.
Despite the occasional name related confusion, Elliott Brood is certainly on an upswing. They recently celebrated their ten-year anniversary with a re-release of their first album and are also planning a new album to be released sometime in 2014.
“We’re going to go out on a tour out west like we did ten years ago. We also re-released Tin Type with three new songs on vinyl which should be out in August.”
Elliott Brood also recently celebrated a Juno win for their latest album Days Into Years for Best Roots and Traditional Album of the Year. This continues their Juno nomination streak.
“This is our fourth nomination, so it’s not like we’re old hands at it but it always feels really good to know that you’re appreciated by your peers. And to finally win is pretty awesome, too,” Sasso joked.
Days Into Years was inspired by a trip to a World War I military cemetery while in France.
“We found ourselves with five days to travel,” Sasso explained. “We decided to take in historical sights. We wanted to stop at Juno beach…after the first couple of hours at the cemetery, there were 11,500 tombstones and it really grabbed us.”
“We thought maybe we will write an album about it, but that didn’t happen for another five, six years … we found time to digest books on the subject.”
Elliott Brood will be taking their foot-stomping country sound to the Kitchener Bluesfest over the weekend of Aug. 8. This is their second time playing the festival, more than five years after their first Bluesfest appearance.
The band are no strangers to playing in the Kitchener-Waterloo region. They recall having played here numerous times, most notably at Starlight on King Street and in the surrounding Guelph area. Sasso mentions having a soft spot for playing at Starlight having always played a great show there. Now they get to relive the magic with special Great Lake Swimmers later this summer.
Elliot Brood plays with Great Lake Swimmers at Kitchener Bluesfest on the Downtown BIA stage Sunday August 11 @ 6:30 p.m. For ticketing information visit kitchenerbluesfestival.com