A little more Share please

Posted on January 7, 2008

A few weeks ago, my lovely and amazing friend Andrea sent me Share’s new CD through the mail. Friends are friends are friends. Alright. But Andrea… she’s really something. But this post isn’t really about her as much as it is about the band Share.

The band consists of the leading man Andrew Sisk accompanied by Nick Cobham and Kyle Cunjak. They’re a mainly acoustic act although they do use some little electronic instruments to spice things up a bit. Sisk also plays in the Halifax band The Sleepless Nights while Cobham and Cunjak both play in The Olympic Symphonium.

When I went to Fredericton in May 2006 to graduate from STU, my friend Janet wanted to take me to this show to see Share. You’re reading this, so you probably don’t make as strong of a connection with Cher as I did at the time, but with a name like that, I couldn’t help but chuckle at the thought that we were going to see Share. Needless to say I was pretty skeptical about this band. What can I say… the name just kinda turned me off.

Once they started playing, the chuckles in my head were replaced by amazement and enchantment. This is really something folks. Seriously. Nothing to do with “Do you believe in life after love”. A few mornings later, when I went into the studio with Kyle to get my grad pictures taken, he popped in Share’s CD Ukulele Tragic, which kicks off with a great little diddy called Bluebird. The ukulele is such an underrated instrument. Months later, Mr. Sisk explained to me that he wrote that album while in Jamaica and that his newer stuff was not so much about the ukulele as much as his first album.

I listened to the album a few dozen times before putting it back on the shelf. One gorgeous sunny day last summer, I decided to pop it in while sitting in the sun. Ukulele Tragic was basically the soundtrack to my summer. I listened to it so many times that I think I’ve burned it out. After buying the second album, Can Can Missile, I also started listening to it on a regular basis. The two albums are completely different, but both carry their own weight wonderfully. Can Can Missile officially marks Cobham’s and Cunjak’s collaboration into what was previously a mostly one-man-band. Electronic instruments such as pedals and a little keyboard are definitely more present but the compositions remain just as strong as the ones on the previous album.

Last October, I brought my friend Craig from CBC Radio 3 to their show. They were playing at The Barfly, which is a grungy little place on St-Laurent Boulevard. They played a wonderful set and managed to impress us both. In fact, they impressed Craig so much that he chose one of their songs as his Track of the Week.  If you’re a regular listener of the CBC Radio 3, you might have noticed that he plays their songs in his shows from time to time.

Their latest album is just as fantastic as the two previous ones. I simply can’t get enough of their music. The only complaint I would have is the fact that the albums are so short. They mainly run around 35 minutes. Do yourself a favor and check this band out. Seriously. You won’t regret it.