“Mighty Fine Time” by Lori Paul & Spiderlodge 2013
Lori Paul and Spiderlodge have really done it this time. I just had a tremendous time listening to Mighty Fine Time, the Chilliwack trio’s latest recording.
I laughed. I cried. Seriously.
They’ve put together six tunes displaying a sleek musicality with chops galore, ranging across folk, country, blues and roots. There’s a fresh and retro feel to it at the same time.
Lori Paul pulls you in with her adept storytelling and beating creative heart, as does Rick Genge with his impressive multi-instrumental offerings, and Clay Thornton’s steady rhythms.
There’s a comfortable Canadiana poking through, and Lori’s finely honed lyrics are well worth actually reading (check them out at spiderlodge.com)
The bluesy, and mysterious number ‘.30-06’ is one of my favourites.
“The river has worn the mountain down to beds of silt and stone.” Evocative images of silty rivers telling no tales, but handfuls of sand carrying “little itty bitty bits of bone.”
Hello, boss!
But I warn you sensitive types, the poignant and poetic lyrics and Lori’s delivery can make you cry. (Twice!)
She’s clearly learned a thing or two about love, loss and redemption.
“My friend you can’t outrun your family history
“I can never trust myself, to be the judge of someone else
“How I made it fifty years is a goddamn mystery.”
The wistful ‘Wish for You’ also tugs at the heartstrings, “Some things in life we just never get over, there’s no consolation, no such thing as closure.
“You learn this late if you live to grow older and that is my wish for you, sweet darlin’ that is my wish for you.”
And finally I love the fact that Lori put a 1943 portrait of her musically inclined and smiling great uncle Dick Kehler on the CD cover for the art work.
A ways into the tunage, you realize you want to be one of those people you’re hearing about in the songs, running over winter lawns to see the northern stars, and living in the country and walking through the fields like Lori and the guys.
“Thank you for the fish it was truly delicious.”
Oh, so, pour me some wine, ’cause I always have a mighty fine time, my friend.

Lori Paul & Spiderlodge’s The Secret Language of Birds has an autobiographical feel

by MIKE USINGER on MAR 28, 2012 at 2:25 PM

The Secret Language of Birds (Independent)

There’s an autobiographical feel to The Secret Language of Birds that makes you relieved the folk-leaning songs are as accomplished and expertly played as they are. How would you like having to crap on “Deloraine”, where singer Lori Paul delivers a heartfelt thank-you letter set to music to her Uncle Ralph and Auntie Jane, rural folks who evidently always had a spare bedroom for a confused city kid? Against a warm backdrop of easygoing alt-country, the Chilliwack-via-the-Prairies transplant sings, “I was a city kid, from a broken home/I arrived in June afraid and alone.”

Paul is anything but charmless on The Secret Language of Birds, which finds her backed by a couple of ringers, multi-instrumentalists Rick Genge and Clay Thornton. Together, they cover plenty of musical ground, from the mystical blues of “Betty Ford Brochure” to the skittery folk of “Letter to Louise”. As for the stories, even though she finishes things up with a gorgeous instrumental—“Still Life With Rose”—Paul seemingly has no shortage of them. Her greatest gift might be the way she’s able to take the seemingly mundane and turn it into something worth investing in, which explains how, against impossible odds, you’ll end up caring about the character known as “Roadhouse Red”, a hollowed-out chicken that serves as an all-purpose depository for car keys, old receipts, and doggie-doo bags.