In Flight

Collection Contents

#		Title	Length
1		My Rent	3:34	Play
2		Twisted	3:14	Play
3		No Idea	3:35	Play
4		Find Some Other Day	4:18	Play
5		Soul to Please	2:58	Play
6		Rain Room	3:14	Play
7		In Flight	3:41	Play
8		Crying Out A River	3:53	Play
9		Bringing Me Down	5:26	Play
10		Technology	3:18	Play
11		Now And Then	3:55	Play
12		Red Fades Away	4:25	Play

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Description

Delivering an honest blend of funk, soul, jazz and blues, Darcy Menard is a vocalist/instrumentalist with a fresh sound that is fully infused with his musical roots. On his 2005 release, In Flight, tracks range from jazz influenced, to delta-blues, to kicking soul. The well-crafted songs are infectious, energetic, and straight from the gut.

Menard plays a lap hawaiian slide on three tracks--his style is sometimes reminiscent of Ben Harper, who is a large influence. "Soul to Please," is exactly what the title implies--a song about the electrifying charge of relationship. The delta-blues slide guitar is contrasted with a modern rhythmic backbeat to give a fresh sound to this familiar theme. Menard's electric guitar playing has a strong rhythmic feel, even on his lead playing--something he attributes to playing so much as a solo performer. "When I've got a band behind me,"he says, "that's when things get really interesting." A good example of his lead guitar work, "In Flight," is a soulful funk blues number that derives much of its power from its in-your-face scorching electric guitar and syncopated rhythmic line. "We just let the tape roll on that one," Menard says. "First take, mistakes and all. No overdubs."

Many of the tracks, like "In Flight," are not the standard verse and chorus structure of the modern pop song, but instead resemble the larger single repeating motif of blues and jazz. "I like to think of many of these songs as modern blues numbers," Menard says. "To write a modern blues tune, all you've got to do is conjure up an item from your endless internal gripe list." This is exactly the process that inspired "My Rent," a delta-blues influenced stomper that hits home on multiple levels. "I guess if there's a political song in the collection, that's it."

Menard also cites Jimi Hendrix and Paul Simon as big influences: "Hendrix because he pushed the musical boundaries fearlessly in every direction, and Simon because he writes impeccable songs that incorporate everything from traditional African rhythms to flower-power folk."

In Flight demonstrates these influences, but is also Menard's own signature of musical textures and emotional diversity. Because he combines elements of classic soul singers, blues revivalists, and jam bands, the CD should be embraced by traditionalists and college kids alike. Menard refers to his songs as mood snapshots. As he explains, "I want the listener to resonate with the same mood I was in when I wrote the song."

Menard has been writing and performing throughout the United States and Canada since the early 90's. A native of Sudbury Ontario, he grew up listening to blues, folk, soul, jazz, reggae and rock. The son of a school board curriculum music director, he traded in his ukulele for a guitar and began to perform regularly as a preteen, playing hometown bars long before he was of legal age. Though he never landed a major label deal, Menard produced three independent CDs, honing his musical skills through extensive touring of the United States and Canada with the 90's Canadian rock group, Terra Cain. At the end of the decade, he formed Cassius King, an acoustic based alternative rock band that toured and parted ways after recording 2 CDs.

Menard now resides in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he recorded his latest CD.