David Francey So Say We All Review, The Province

DAVID FRANCEY: So Say We All Review by Posted by: Stuart Derdeyn, The Province

Scottish-born Francey has built a deserved reputation as one of Canada’s best singer’songwriters and he’s in particularly fine form on his ninth album. Blessed with one of those haggard-and-seductive voices that really gets under your skin, he covers a lot of ground – literally – on this 14 song collection. From stays at a Cheap Motel to rolling down the Long Long Road with Blue Skies, Blue Yonder and American Blues all popping up, he observes on the little things that uplift a downtrodden spirit time and time again. It’s a case of less-is-more in most of the songs as he sticks to vocals and guitar with occasional mandolin or banjo added in to keep as intimate as possible. Familiar though it may sound, it never falls into cliche which is hard to do in this genre.
(April 30, 2013)

David Francey So Say We All Review in Exclaim Magazine

By Kerry Doole

It can be argued that David Francey has had more impact than any old-school Canadian folk songsmith since the late great Stan Rogers. A late bloomer, he has now released ten albums that have deservedly won acclaim here (three Juno Awards) and beyond. So Say We All is one of his very best; it finds him digging deep, mining themes of depression, grief and unrequited love with genuine empathy. "These songs encompass what proved [to be] a very difficult year," he writes in the liner notes, though those tracks collected here range as far back as 1995. Some of the metaphors and locales (cheap motels, life as a road) are well worn, but it's a testimony to Francey's skill and always convincing vocal style that he can breathe new life into them. There is astute social commentary in "American Blues" ("and we run in the shadow of the power and the might") and "Bitterroot," but it's the songs forged from the soul that hit hardest. The vocal-only "Blue Yonder" (featuring Tannis Slimmon) and equally sparse closing title cut are amongst the highlights. As ever, the best players surround Francey, including string wizard Chris Coole, while the recording and mixing of Ken Friesen keep the sound clean, but never slick. This is another winner.

Original article

More great reviews for Right of Passage

David FranceyRight of Passage (Laker Music)

A lot of musicians wax rhapsodic about the vagabond life; David Francey knows better. A Scottish native and Canadian immigrant, Francey has buttered his bread as a rail worker, a carpenter, an ore carrier shipmate, and a Yukon bush wrangler. He’s also won Juno Awards and has written some of the best songs you’ll ever hear. “Ballad of Bowser McCrae” and “Promised Land” are spirited sea song/Celtic hybrids; whereas “Their Wedding Day” and “Under the Portland Weather” are deeply personal observations wrapped in intimate folk melodies. “New Jerusalem” stops you in your tracks by cutting through the faux piety of murder in the name of Yahweh or Allah. Every song on this album tells you that David Francey is a plebeian poet who can make the prosaic sublime.— Rob Weir,
The Valley Advocate


David Francey
Right of Passage
Laker Music

I guess, at this point in David Francey’s stellar career, we are down to expecting near perfection delivered with each succeeding album. Well…Right of Passage delivers the proverbial goods once again. Twelve new songs and, unexpectedly, one lovely tune delivered superbly by Geoff Somers on fiddle and mandolin and Craig Werth on guitar and bouzouki. David lends a hand, by droning the shruti box.

The songs range from a lovely portrait of one Bowser MacRae, the third mate on an Algoma Central ore carrier, to a song inspired from the TV news coverage of the Middle East. All are extremely well crafted from this observant, slightly melancholic, and gentle man. He sings from the heart, and the arrangements are simple but effective. I particularly liked Stone Town a portrait of Quebec City in the rain. I’ve been in Quebec City in the rain and he nails it.

So, all in all, another terrific effort from Mr. Francey. Did you really expect anything different? Les Siemieniuk, Penguin Eggs