Julie Doiron and The Wooden Stars

available for the first time on vinyl with download. recorded and released in 1999 by tree records and sappy records (reissued by jagjaguwar in 2002), the album finds ottawa-based quartet the wooden stars playing doiron's back-up band, helping her step out of the solitary, introspective robe she'd been wearing and venture into a more urgent and upbeat - albeit still fundamentally spartan - direction. combining elements of rock and jazz a la joni mitchell's early 70s work, julie and the wooden stars somehow translated the coldness of the canadian winter into one of the warmest and most tender records to be produced in the eastern province in years.