Rock and roll and country music about astonishment at being in love, recovering ladies men and wasp stings.

10 MP3 Songs
ROCK: Country-Rock, COUNTRY: Alt-Country

Details:
In the Wasp Nest
by Franklin P. Whitmore

Wasp Nest Blues is the debut album from Robin Woywitka, an Alberta-based singer/songwriter. The record is a tight selection of mostly upbeat songs about recovering ladiesâ men, the sweet pain of being an Edmonton Oilers fan and astonishment at oneâs own capability to fall in love. Musically it brings shuffling country with a healthy dose of R&B and more than a pinch of pop. The CMF Records publicity team caught up with Robin at an A&W in Camrose, Alberta.

What sound were you looking for in this record?

Any sound that I have ever thought up in my head has never been fully realized in the real world. By the time performing and recording is done, nothing sounds the way it did in my brain. But I purposefully used only voice, percussion and stringed instruments on this one. No keyboards or anything.

Why is that?

I wanted something that sounded relatively simple. Plus Iâm only really any good on the guitar.

What would you want a listener to experience when they hear the album?

Mostly I wanted to make an album that didnât dwell on the dark side too much. That was hard, because it is really easy to write mopey or angry songs. Thatâs probably why there are so many out there.

What about musical influences?

I know what elements of music I like. I love bass lines that are integral to the rhythmic feel of the song. Then I like to have a guitar part double or closely accent that line. Iâm also a sucker for the reverb on old Fender amps.

There are a couple of Alberta specific references in these songs, is that an important thing to you?

Itâs where I live and work. I wrote one song about the Oilers. I guess there is a suite of place related feelings and ideas that set into your brain. That stuff seeps out. But songs about love and such donât have any geography.

I understand that Oilers song [The Ballad of the Orange and Blue] won an award?

Yeah, I won the âDan Bern Biggest Balls Awardâ at the Calgary Folk Music Festival Songwriting Competition for singing a song about the Oil on the red mile. That means nothing to people who donât know who the Oilers and Flames are. But it meant everything to the Oiler fan in me. Good for a fifty buck tab at the pub.

Any ideas for the follow up record?

There is a lot of shuffle on this one, so I think the next one will have more straight time on it. I think Iâll use my electric 12 string more.

Sounds great, canât wait.

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