And now Greg Quill of the Toronto Star has an article. Link is here.
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TheStar.com | entertainment | Rock is in Doucet's blood
Rock is in Doucet's blood
With a hot new CD and constant tour schedule, Luke Doucet has earned his buzz
Mar 27, 2008 04:30 AM
At 34, and for half his lifetime deemed a gifted if erratically
adventurous musical prodigy by his peers and mentors, Luke Doucet has
fallen under the spell of the mighty Gretsch White Falcon and
everything that famous oversized electric guitar stands for.
“I always wanted a Gretsch, but I could never afford one,” the
Halifax-born songwriter, session guitarist, producer and bandleader
said in an interview earlier this week during a break in a touring
schedule that may easily stretch out over the next 18 months.
Doucet and his band, The White Falcon, opened 20 concerts across Canada
for Blue Rodeo this winter and are slated for more of the same in
Europe in the summer, as well as their own gigs and upcoming dates in
the U.S. opening for Kathleen Edwards later in the year and beyond.
Doucet and The White Falcon, which includes his wife, songwriter
Melissa McClelland, are performing a homecoming show of their own at
Toronto’s Horseshoe Tavern Saturday night.
“I always settled for old Harmony guitars or new Fenders that you pick
up for around $800. A good Gretsch of any vintage will set you back a
good two or three grand.”
At the same time he became aware that most of the bands he liked had a
Gretsch somewhere in the mix, Doucet came up with the cash for a new
reissue of the legendary White Falcon — the most treasured models, like
the one Neil Young plays, ceased being manufactured in 1973, the year
of Doucet’s birth, and fetch up to $25,000 these days.
He then launched himself on a voyage that led to the heady pleasures of
simple, guitar-driven rock ’n’ roll and the finest recording of his
long and productive career, Blood’s Too Rich, released two months ago
to unanimous critical approval.
“Over the last couple of years I’ve become a fan of Tom Petty and the
Heartbreakers and other classic guitar bands,” Doucet explained. “I’m a
late bloomer. Maybe it’s because I’m in my 30s ..... but for some
strange reason I started gravitating to that kind of music. On the
never-ending journey to find myself in music I’ve learned that
simplicity is most important.
“The more we perform live, the more we get out of straight meters and rock ’n’ roll grooves.
“When
I was younger I made what some people called excessive use of dynamics
and my musical knowledge,” he continues. “But the material I’ve always
enjoyed most — even if it’s Elvis Costello or Radiohead — is the
simplest.
“There’s no reason you can’t combine intelligent, complex lyrics with candid, straightforward structures. I think I’ve evolved.”
Doucet started playing guitar in his father’s blues band in Winnipeg at
age 15, ran his own salsa orchestra at 17, at 19 became a key member of
Sarah McLachlan’s touring band out of Vancouver before forming the
cowpunk psychobilly outfit Veal.
He has been the cause of a major buzz in Canada’s roots music and
alternative rock circles for quite a while, as an artist, sideman,
session musician and the producer of some great work by others, NQ
Arbuckle’s The Last Supper in a Cheap Town and McClelland’s Thumbelina’s One Night Stand.
Written in Nashville, many of the songs on Blood’s Too Rich are nostalgic loaded with memories of and references to the Canadian landscape, Canadian characters and events.
One
of the strongest, “The Day Rick Danko Died,” recalls a conversation in
Woodstock, N.Y.,with a village local on the bleak December 1999
afternoon when news broke there, in Danko’s adopted home, of the death
of the Canadian-born bassist of The Band.
“That’s the most blatantly autobiographical song I’ve written,” said
Doucet, who has chronicled his troubles with alcohol and drugs in past
solo recordings.
“It’s not about Danko, really ..... it’s about this guy Allan, who
showed up in the bar where we were having some beers, vividly shaking,
and in great pain.”
The song’s loping, Band-like feel and folk-gospel structure reveal a
remarkable familiarity with classic song forms not previously evident
in Doucet’s work.
“I’ve ceased trying to define what’s unique about my influences,” he
said. “I don’t choose them, they choose me. My parents were great
lovers of music. I was fed Ray Charles, Willie Nelson, Paul Simon,
Stevie Wonder, J.J. Cale, Tom Waits and The Band with my breakfast
Cheerios. That music was my natural environment.”
Naturally, it was paid no conscious heed when Doucet struck out on his
own, first by revelling in The Cure, the one band his parents couldn’t
tolerate — he covers “The Lovecats” on Blood’s Too Rich
— then by developing a musical identity as far removed from their
tastes as was possible. It doesn’t surprise him, he said, that his
journey has brought him back to where it began.
“I feel comfortable with this band, with these songs,” he said. “I have
no idea whether the new album is selling well — I don’t know what makes
a best-selling album any more — but there’s a buzz at gigs, and with my
friends and musical family around me, I know this is where I’m supposed
to be.”
I love his cover of "The Lovecats". It's so cool and danceable. However, for the sake of humanity at large, let's hope that, if he plays it at Barrymore's tomorrow, I manage to resist dancing. 
"There's the shirt that I like!"
"It was nice singing with you this evening."