Espanola

Aaron Goldstein has spent the better part of a decade as pedal steel guitarist to some of Canada’s most revered songwriters, and more recently, producer to dozens of young artists and bands – but his Espanola LP has been in the works for just as long. A session in Saskatchewan in 2014 yielded half of the album’s cuts, while the remaining songs were written and recorded over the last three years at Goldstein’s Baldwin Street Sound headquarters in Toronto. The LP mines influences that could be called anything from college-rock to power-pop, with hefty nods to stoner- and classic-rocks and Americana. It is heavy on the formula of big riffs and hooks that will be familiar to fans of Goldstein’s previous outfit, Huron. A cast of friends and fellow sidepeople appear throughout, though the LP also sees Goldstein covering most every position in the band at various points. For fans of: Cheap Trick, Big Star, Thin Lizzy, Sloan, Thrush Hermit, Drive-By Truckers, Black Sabbath, guitar solos.

“Could be the realest thing I’ve heard in decades…a statement of southern rock swaggery that cannot be faked. Espanola serves up more of its riches and heart each time I hear it.”
– Red Guitar Music, UK

“You hear blues rock, rock, new wave, power pop and country, merged together in such a way that it becomes an irresistible whole. Ingenious and catchy melodies, with the title track, which is more than 5 minutes long, to which this project is named, being the highlight.”
– Altcountry.NL, Netherlands