Interview with Beauwater: ‘We’ve always performed as a palo trio because we want to be able to recreate the songs when we play live’

Last month, Newfoundland, Canada-based band, Beauwater, brought out its third album, Who Works For Who, a powerhouse offering of straight up rocky blues.

The band comprises Jonathon Reid (guitar/vocals), Greg Newhook (bass) and Michael Maddox (drums). Like the infamous North Atlantic fog from which the group was born, Beauwater exists in the grey with their brand of blues laden rock neatly straddling both genres, delivering hard-driving riffs and vocals, clever lyricism and soulful grooves. Reid and Newhook have been friends since they were five years old. ‘We played in a band in high school together. Jonathan came to stay one time when it was foggy and his flight got cancelled and we got together with Mike, who I already knew, and had a random jamming session, which is how the band started. We’ve always performed as a palo trio because we want to be able to recreate the songs when we play live.’

That’s not to say that they won’t have other musicians guest on their songs. The latest album sees the return of Kelly Hoppe of Big Sugar on harmonica, Chris Harnett on saxophone, Terry Campbell on trumpet and Chris Kirby on keys, allowing the band to recapture the magical lineup that helped make their last effort a success.

The hard-hitting opening track, ‘Who Works For Who’, was inspired by a situation Newhook observed at work: ‘I wrote the words after a strange observation at work where we had a representative from the union making decisions on our behalf that didn’t make sense but no-one dared to say anything, well I did,’ he laughed. ‘It seemed like a strange dynamic.’

His frustration comes across in the lyrics: ‘Are you the one they told us not to cross? The words you speak are gospel, all hail the boss. Should you grace us with your presence and I stare you eye to eye, tellin’ us we’re equal just to keep us all in line.’

‘It’s hard not to feel a bit of resentment when a band seems to come out of nowhere’

Another track on the album, ‘Flavour of the Week’, is gloriously bluesy, a real in-your-face power shuffle of a song. ‘Jonathan wrote the guitar riff and had a loose idea of what he wanted the lyrics to represent,’ said Newhook. ‘In the studio, the lyrics weren’t doing the music justice, so we changed them, it took about 10 minutes. I don’t know if it’s about a particular person. We have a very diverse and supportive music scene here but we struggled to make it for years and the song is also about that in a way because it’s hard not to feel a bit of resentment when a band seems to come out of nowhere and become a hit.’

The fickle nature of the industry comes under fire in the lyrics: ‘On Monday you’re a darling, Friday you’re old news, on your knees by Sunday, praying they’ll remember you. When you lose your connection and they find somebody new, stronger, younger, stealin’ your thunder, the way they always do.’

‘Tonight She’s Gonna Burn’ is the most personal and intense song on the album: ‘Jonathan and I come from a town of 400 people, Norman’s Cove – Long Cove, which is in a rural area about an hour from St. John’s – where we used to have a fish processing plant that employed most of the town. Jonathan’s father was the manager. He’d posted on social media that it was on fire and Jonathan had this awful drive home not knowing how bad it was. Luckily, the plant was vacant but it burned to the ground and was never rebuilt. They built something else afterwards but it only employs a few people.’

As the song goes: ‘Heart and soul, quiet town, watched it all come crashing down, standing helpless as she disappears, choking on the smoky air.’

‘I came up with the guitar riff after a whisky-fuelled jam’

Their second album, Lovers, Fools and Kings, has a slightly different feel to it, it’s bluesier. It propelled the group into the regional spotlight, earning the 2017 ECMA for Blues Recording of the Year, bringing their career total MusicNL Award nominations to five. One of the stand-out tracks on the album is ‘Whiskey’: ‘It’s about a guy drowning his sorrows after a break-up, I came up with the guitar riff after a whisky-fuelled jam,’ Newhook laughed. ‘What often happens as the bass player is that I’ll come up with an arrangement and Jonathan picks it up and puts his spin on it. We all contribute material, and sometimes riffs and arrangements are randomly born in improvised jamming and writing sessions. It’s very much a group effort.’

Beauwater was formed in 2008 in St. John’s, NL, Canada and they have performed with acts such as Our Lady Peace,Third Eye Blind, Big Sugar, The Trews, Matt Mays and Hey Rosetta!

Newhook is a massive of fellow St. John’s guitarist and singer-songwriter Nick Earle who, at the tender age of just 21, is a two-time Canadian Folk Music award winner and a five-time MusicNL award recipient. ‘He’s a prodigy, he’s already been performing for about six years,’ said Newhook. These days, Earle performs with his band The Reckless Hearts. ‘I’m jealous that he’s our biggest competition,’ he laughed.

He’s also a big fan of folk-blues singer Dave Mundy. ‘He grew up in the heart of the delta blues (a style of blues that originated in the Mississippi Delta), he’s a harmonica player and vocalist. He’s a great guy, we’ve had him in for a session.’

Influences include blues singer and musician Stevie Ray Vaughan – ‘myself and Jonathan, we’re really into him’, The Black Keys and John Mayer. ‘It’s that ability he has to be completely natural across different genres like pop and blues.’

If he could tour with anyone, he goes with The White Stripes: ‘For going to places that other bands might not go. They showed up here to do a secret unannounced show when they were trying to play everywhere, played one F# and left!’ (He contacts me after the interview to tell me that they did go on to play an actual show in the end.) Or Led Zeppelin. I’ve had a reserved life, so I’d like to see that kind of rock ‘n’ roll, although I might regret mentioning that after a few shows!’

(Photo from left to right: Jonathon, Greg and Mike)