Good Watermelon

Piano pop tunesmith Mike Evin hollers out to his bandmates and leads call-and-response singalongs and handclaps all over his new album, Good Watermelon, and with good reason: Everything on the album was recorded and mixed live onto two-track analog tape. Everyone in the studio was clapping, shouting, and singing together in one room, and on the likes of Great Pop Song, We Should Dance and Rockin' Receptionist, you can really tell. Although he's variously made his home in New York City, Toronto, and Halifax, Evin returned to his birthplace and hometown of Montreal for two weeks in April 2008 to capture Good Watermelon, his fourth recording and his most mature and personal yet. In capturing this eclectic blend of memorable songs that celebrate life, Evin enlisted a gang of players/friends - including Montreal collective Ideal Lovers (Zac Decamp, David Payant, Mike O'Brien and Joe Grass), Andy Creeggan (former Barenaked Ladies), Emma Baxter (Orillia Opry), and Angela Desveaux - to be his backup band, while Andrea Dawes arranged a string section and Paul Forgues mixed and engineered the recording.