SLOFolks Presents: The Bills

“Their sound is panoram­ic, mis­chie­vous, fierce­ly unpre­ten­tious — and musi­cal­ly splen­did” — Boston Globe

From the beau­ti­ful West Coast of Cana­da comes this extra­or­di­nary quin­tet, renowned among fans of all ages for their instru­men­tal vir­tu­os­i­ty, lush vocal arrange­ments, exu­ber­ant live per­for­mances, evoca­tive song­writ­ing, and a refresh­ing sound that tran­scends musi­cal bound­aries and defies sim­ple cat­e­go­riza­tion.

Strings, bel­lows, keys, voic­es, skin and bows — these are the vehi­cles for the Bills’ unique son­ic approach. With indi­vid­ual band mem­bers sport­ing world-class cre­den­tials in folk/​roots, jazz, clas­si­cal and world music, The Bills tru­ly are a Cana­di­an acoustic music super­group.

Their lat­est release, Yes Please, fea­tures some of The Bills’ finest song­writ­ing to date. The pre­vi­ous two albums, Let Em Run and All Day Every Day, each gar­nered JUNO nom­i­na­tions and var­i­ous awards for out­stand­ing roots record­ing.

On Yes Please, already nom­i­nat­ed for Out­stand­ing Roots Record­ing in West­ern Cana­da, the band offers up twelve new orig­i­nal com­po­si­tions and a seduc­tive arrange­ment of a med­ley of gyp­sy-jazz bal­lads. The Bills often-col­lab­o­ra­tive orig­i­nals (four band mem­bers con­tribute in var­i­ous com­bi­na­tions) coax sub­lime beau­ty, ener­gy and rhythm out of their instru­ments and lay­ered vocal har­monies. You’ll hear the influ­ences of glob­al roots and rock along­side hints of Chopin, Stan Rogers and Djan­go Rein­hardt. But you’ll ulti­mate­ly hear The Bills, doing the mag­i­cal thing that they do.

A Bills live show is a leg­endary expe­ri­ence. Since form­ing in 1996, the band has delight­ed the­atre and fes­ti­val audi­ences from Copen­hagen to Cal­i­for­nia, thrilling fans with their breath­tak­ing musi­cal explo­rations and their unscript­ed onstage wit and charm. In 2006 the band was vot­ed West­ern Cana­di­an Enter­tain­er of the Year, edg­ing the likes of nom­i­nees Michael Buble and Jann Arden.

Whether spin­ning on your record­ed playlist, enter­tain­ing an inti­mate the­atre audi­ence or rock­ing a fes­ti­val crowd of 10,000, these five gift­ed mul­ti-instru­men­tal­ists are mas­ters at some­how leav­ing lis­ten­ers breath­less and revi­tal­ized all at once.

With an infec­tious ener­gy lev­el, clever tunes, fine musi­cian­ship, and tight three-part har­monies, the music on Yes Please epit­o­mizes mod­ern roots music Audio​phile​.com

​“The Bills are the biggest blast of fresh air to come out of Cana­da since The Band” — Glas­gow Herald