So for nearly the past two years, we’ve tried getting a batch of songs together with Brooklyn folk singer Ryan Doyle, but you know how these things go — you get busy and distracted, and sometimes things take longer than you originally planned. 26 February 2010, however, we finally managed to pull it together in the lovely Buddy Project studio in Astoria, Queens, and did some joint recording that we’re both particularly proud of. We recorded one of the first ever WP songs, titled ‘By Lamplight’, which has come in and out of WP set-lists since the start. And let it be said now, Ryan Doyle’s ‘Homeless Summer 1996’ is the summer jam of 2010. (Or, considering how long it took to actually get into the same studio, maybe we should play it safe and say summer 2011). Anyway, considering how good it went this time out, you can be sure to expect more in the way of WP / RD in the future. Until then, here’s the original 2005 demo of ‘By Lamplight’. So young, so full of promise.

• By Lamplight [2005 Demo]

One of my fondest memories of growing up in Canada involves John Weldon’s 1979 short film The Log Driver’s Waltz (viewable at the National Film Board of Canada’s incredible website (here). The song (originally written by Wade Hemsworth), was performed for the film by sisters Kate and Anna McGarrigle and became such a quintessential Canadian cultural artifact that I can’t think of a time when this tune hasn’t been a part of my understanding of Canada itself. For a time, we performed ‘If Only I Were a Painter, I’d Paint for You the Moon’ from Songbook as a two-part medley with ‘The Log Driver’s Waltz’, and at our 2008 Sled Island show at Central United Church in Calgary, our friend Kris Ellestad asked us to back him up on a full run-through. We post it here in memory of Kate McGarrigle, who died last week.

• The Log Driver’s Waltz [Wade Hemsworth / Kate & Anna McGarrigle]

A crisp early morning, and everything’s yellow, gold, and red. Too little sleep, but always more than enough energy to sing another favourite.

• You’re My Only Home [The Magnetic Fields] (for Rolf, Catriona, Katie, and Stefanie of Florence Gardens)

xox, mark + catriona sturton + shane turner

We know we should be asleep, but sometimes you just want to stay up and sing with your friends.

• Asleep & Dreaming [The Magnetic Fields]

xox, mark + catriona sturton + shane turner

Our pal Jack Day is one of our favourite folk traditionalists. It was hard enough to get him to play into a “newfangled” recorder, and then he kept trying to throw me off by holding phrases and being difficult. So, one take. No overdubs. A song handed down for ages, and now from us to you.

• Rambler Gambler [Traditional]

xox, mark + jack day (chris dadge on beatz)

Beth Jeans Houghton is one of our musical favourites. In the entire world. Ever. Whenever we’re in Newcastle together we always record something at the Heaton Perk Cafe after closing time, and this time around, it’s Gordon Lightfoot’s ‘I’m Not Saying’ (originally re-interpreted by Nico).

• I’m Not Saying [Gordon Lightfoot]

xox, mark + beth jeans houghton (chris + dav on beatz)

..but it’s still dark inside.

• Lonely Kiss [originally by The Consonant C]

xox, mark and louise hull, rob ranger and chris dadge

There’s not much else to do when it’s rainy but stay inside and pay tribute.

• Say Say Say [Paul McCartney / Michael Jackson]

xox, mark and louise hull

Tomorrow afternoon, WP leaves the comfy confines of our prairie Canadian abodes for a short string of festivals and shows in UK cities we haven’t made it to quite yet. In preparation, the focus has not stayed on booking the necessary train tickets or filling the gaps left in accommodations. No, instead, it has been the far more important act of filling up one’s iPod touch that has taken up much of this last-minute panic zone.

Just added: Scout Niblett’s This Fool Can Die Now, Quasi’s Field Studies and Featuring “Birds”, Stereolab’s Sound-Dust, and The Magnetic Fields’ 69 Love Songs. These join Coeur de Pirate’s Coeur de Pirate, Do Make Say Think’s You, You’re a History in Dust, and John Cale’s Paris 1919. I’ve been figuring out a perfect time and place to listen to some of these records. Am I alone in thinking Scout Niblett’s simply perfect for an Icelandic sunset? (On second thought — scratch that. The sun doesn’t set in Iceland this time of year. Drat).

Anyway, there’s also a little record on this here iPod we’ve been working on for quite some time now titled Die Stadt Muzikanten. We’ve tweaked the mixes and mastered the mastering. It sounds just about as big as we’d hoped it would, and there’s a few more surprises in store for its release, which we’re prepping ourselves for in January of 2010. We’re at the final round of making sure it’s all good to go, affectionately referred to as “the part where Mark travels somewhere and listens to it 1,000 times, finally ends up either liking it or just getting sick of it, and then most likely never really listens to it ever again” stage.

But at least there’ll be distraction. A small bit of recording is on the table in London-towne in the next couple of weeks, and hopefully we’ll have something to share with you on that soon. Until then, here’s a little recording we did in a Dublin hotel room this past May. It’s a song called ‘So Hold’, a version of which will appear on an upcoming split EP with our friend Chris Smith. All of the rooms in this hotel had a name, some of which were awesome (Vampyre, for just one example), except for the one in which we recorded this (which just so happened to be the one in which I slept) called Faerie Star. The chorus comes in a little off-the-rails, but that’s OK — we were probably just laughing about the name of the room.

• So Hold (Dublin Hotel Room)

Damn, Toronto. This is total ‘from the bottom of our hearts’ kind of stuff: thanks for the amazing weekend. Thanks for packing into the Horseshoe and making us feel welcome (and a tip of the hat to Grant Lawrence for reminding us that NXNE was also our return to playing on Canadian soil for the first time in months), and for somehow letting us go over the written-in-stone LIVE ON CBC / NXNE set time allotments. And oh, the whole surprise live-on-air awarding of the NXNE Galaxie Rising Star award thing was an added beautiful surprise. We’ll come back any time you’ll have us, Toronto.

As for the rest of our trip, that too was grand. Boompa Erin and I tried to take in as many Pad Thais as possible over the course of four food-stuffed days. The Red Room gets points for being nice and spicy (and cheap), but I think I’m going to have to proclaim Queen Mother the winner in the Toronto’s Best NXNE Pad Thai Race 2009. (And when it comes to breakfast, Sandro Perri revealed the incredible Café Lula’s poached eggs on cheesy polenta as one of the city’s finest morning offerings).

It was great to see so many friends again, and exciting to walk past so many artists recognizable from our music collections at home. A festival like NXNE is a rather heady, panicked, and overwhelming experience (so a special thanks to the pal who let me use her apartment ever-so-slightly off the beaten path this weekend), but at least in this particular instance, everything went off without a hitch.

PS. Cheers to the Woodpigeon NXNE 2009 band: Annalea Sordi on Nord, flute & vocals; Foon Yap on violin, Mandobird & vocals, Paul Aucoin on vibes, Arran Fisher on bass, clarinet, percussion & vocals; Garrett McClure on guitar, and Dean Martin on drums. And oh. I’m Mark. I wore extremely white trousers which Maggie MacDonald spilled a full pint of Coca Cola on in the Red Room right after our show. From here on out, whenever I see a faint brown stain I’ll think fondly of Toronto.