Skydiggers - Here Without You - The Songs of Gene Clark (2016)

My dad hated the Beatles growing up. I’ve never gotten a straight answer out of him as to why, specifically because he did have a copy of the A Hard Day’s Night LP in his record collection, which he bequeathed to me all scratched up and nearly unplayable. Still, he has suggested that the Beatles were just too popular for his tastes, and he hated that popularity (but that didn’t stop him from sneaking an album here or there such as Hard Day’s and also the first CD of Past Masters for his record collection). So what does a guy growing up in countless Ontario cities and small towns — his family moved around a lot — do if you hate the Beatles? Well, he gets insular and finds Dylan. Or, at least, Dylan as filtered through the folk rock style of the Byrds. Let’s just say that my father loves or loved the Byrds, having every single vinyl album in their collection, despite the popular notion that the Byrds first four albums and Sweetheart of the Rodeo are the ones that are truly essential. Even as the Byrds fractured and members left, and the albums began to generally decline in quality, my dad was a fan until the very end, and then some. My God, when my mother and I bought him the ’90s “best of” box set on cassette one Christmas, that man wore down the tape on the fourth cassette which featured songs from the group’s Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Fame induction.

So here’s an album my dad would probably like: the recent Skydiggers album. It features solely covers — some reimagined, some not — of songs by Gene Clark, who was a founding member of the Byrds and, later, a noted solo artist who didn’t have the commercial viability of his time in the Byrds. It’s a short record, being only eight songs long and running about 25 minutes. However, it does shine a spotlight on a rather forgotten Byrd, and it may go so far as to educate some. (I never knew until now that “Feel a Whole Lot Better” was a Clark song. I’d always assumed it was Roger McGuinn’s.) It’s also a bit of a weird album, and here’s why: Skydiggers are predominantly a Canadiana band, and their laid-back folksy strum is steeped in northern culture. So for Skydiggers to take on an American artist seems a little ill-fitting in some respects. However, respect for musicians amongst other musicians does run deep, so maybe it’s not as shocking a move as it would seem on first blush. Plus, some of these songs — save the familiar “Feel a Whole Lot Better” and maybe a handful of others — have been reworked to the point where they don’t even resemble the original. So Skydiggers are, in a way, putting a Canadian spin on a noted American songwriter who, alas, is no longer with us — Clark died in 1991 after struggling for years with alcoholism. And, by and large, it’s mostly welcome, even though I’m not sure die-hard Skydiggers fans might go ga-ga over it because, you know, it’s not an album of originals.~Zachary Houle