Vancouver Roots Band Rusty Creek’s latest single, ‘White Sails’ is a rousing salute to the tall ships that came to fish the waters off Trinity Bay, Newfoundland. The third single from the band’s 2022 album The Road of Life — lead singer and songwriter Alex Deeth’s “audio autobiography” — the song paints a vivid picture of the abundant landscape and waters that drew the first Europeans to Newfoundland.
Deeth reaches far back in history to write his lyrical “Chapter 1,” painting a vivid scene of early Western European fishermen who took safe harbor to fish for cod to bring back to the Old World each year. “‘White Sails’ is in reference to the tall ships that came in the Spring and left in the Fall to fish the amazing bounty in Trinity Bay,” explains the lead vocalist and guitarist, who grew up in Vancouver, B.C., and toured Canada extensively with a variety of successful bands including Wicked Orange and NQR before forming Rusty Creek.
While it chronicles times past, ‘White Sails’ is nonetheless a modern-day sea shanty. The band weaves a musical net consisting of resonator guitar, fiddle by guest musician Mike Sanyshyn, and hand percussion, as Deeth sings of “sailing through the mist,” and sun rising “o’er the waves /Like a morning kiss.”
‘White Sails’ is the latest single from Rusty Creek’s second album, The Road of Life, released in June 2022. With a wide variety of musical influences including bluegrass, country blues, western swing, rockabilly and Cajun, the band describes their latest work as “Roots Re-Mastered,” with songs ranging from barnburners to ballads.
Formed in 2016, Rusty Creek is a collection of lifelong musicians Alex Deeth, Peter Callaway, Lee Stephens, and Leonard Saidman who have all had a variety of success in the music industry since the 1960s. Their experience adds up to a polished performance and an entertaining and wide-ranging collection of original roots music.
