#MyMusicStory

Submitted by: Glassreel (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram)

Summer time meant our family of five packing up in our motorhome and going away for weeks, sometimes months at a time.  This particular summer in ’93 might have been the longest trek we had ever done, driving from Winnipeg to Victoria and back again.  My mother, sister, brother and I played a lot of cards, Yahtzee and Rummoli on these long journeys. The RV did have tape deck, and we had a few cassettes that made it into the daily rotation when we couldn’t pick up a radio signal. One of these was Diana Ross & The Supremes. 

One day, (while flying down the highway) I got up and decided to change the tape, but it had gotten stuck in the tape deck. I pressed eject and all the buttons, but nothing was working. It was like the motorhome had decided to consume the tape and would never let it go. Of course the tape would automatically flip (as it does) but no one could change the tape for the rest of the trip. So the choices were: fuzzy radio advertisements, silence, children screaming and fighting or the voices of three angels singing some of the best songs ever recorded. We listened to that album for that entire summer, six weeks in a confined space with only my immediate family. We knew all of the words and beautiful harmonies. It was and is a very special collection of songs that remains a necessity on any road trip, great or small. Oh, and when my dad sold the RV some 20 odd years later, the tape became a selling feature as it remained lodged in the miraculously still functional tape deck.

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With a sound based in clarity and simplicity, Glassreel began as a partnership between longtime musical collaborators Kelly Beaton and Trevor Graumann. The songs on their debut EP Unalike are marked by tight melodies, thoughtfully crafted arrangements and attention to sonic detail. The band’s music has been compared to artists such as The New Pornographers, Belle and Sebastian, and Mazzy Star.