Olympics Day 10, Sam Roberts live – Whistler 2010

Day 10 of the Olympics here in Whistler started off a bit slower than most with only one band playing on the village square stage compared to the average of 3 per day, but the Sam Roberts Band totally made up for it.

The Sam Roberts Band embrace so many different styles, from power-pop, mystical folk and wildly uninhibited psychedelic rock. He doesn’t hang on to any one style hard enough to be classified as a single genre. Sam Roberts is a talented singer songwriter who married his high school sweat heart and are blessed with two daughters.

In 2001 Sam Roberts released his debut album The Inhuman Condition which became one of the bestselling independent releases in Quebec and Canadian music history; and later climaxed at #32 on the Canadian album chart after a great nine weeks from its release.

In the summer of 2002 his first single “Brother Down” became one of the biggest hits of the year. While his second single “Don’t Walk Away Eileen” followed suit in the fall gaining much acclaim in Quebec and on the Canadian charts.

Roberts debut album reached Gold in Canada with 50,000 copies being sold. Shortly after the release of his independent album Sam singed with Universal Music and started working on the release on his full-lenght major label debut.

In the summer of 2003 Sam Roberts released We Were Born in a Flame which gained a lot of success in Canada with their new singles “Where Have All the Good People Gone?” one of my favorites and “Hard Road” which did great in Canada didn’t receive much attention across the boarders.

While Roberts was holidaying in Australia trying to get some creative juices flowing he found an old renovated Presbyterian church in rural New South Wales and decided it was a perfect place to record his new album. Shortly after his band mates joined him in Oz including, Dave Nugent (lead guitar), Eric Fares (keyboardist), James Hall (bass) and Billy Anthopoulos (drums). The bands Co-producer Mark Howard arrived with all the necessary recording equipment in hand to start creating some new music.

Sam Roberts recalls “We lived and ate our meals together in the church, spent our mornings at the beach and came back in the afternoon to get down to work. It was all pretty idyllic.”

Sam Roberts Band’s second album Chemical City released in 2006 with its single “The Gate” hitting number one on Canadian rock radio stations. “I didn’t write a lot going into it,” explains Roberts. “With the last record, it felt like I had every lick and note figured out beforehand. With this one, I just wanted to leave it open to our imagination and for there to be a sense of immediacy and urgency to the whole record.”

Their most recent album released in 2008 titled Love at the End of the World debuted at number one position on the Canadian album chart. This was a first for the band and I don’t believe it’ll be their last from their awesome performance on stage here in Whistler I can’t wait to see what their next album has in store.

It was a treat to be able to watch Sam Roberts Band play live here in Whistler, I was never a big follower of the band but really enjoyed hearing and watching the band perform some of their hits that I could sing along too. Their live performance of Brother Down and Don’t Walk Away Eileen where some of my favorites and it’ll be great too see them back here hopefully at Telus World Ski and Snowboard festival or at the 2011 Pemberton Festival.

Previous Posts: Whistler Vancouver Olympics 2010 Day 9, Whistler Vancouver Olympics 2010 Day 7, Whistler Vancouver Olympics 2010 Day 6, Whistler Vancouver Olympics 2010 Day 5, Whistler Vancouver Olympic 2010 Day 4, Whistler Vancouver Olympics 2010 Day 3, Whistler Vancouver Olympics 2010 Day 2, Whistler Vancouver Olympics 2010 Day 1