Based in Alberta, Canada, Mike Tod has a Masters in Ethnomusicology and has taken a deep dive into old-time music. Honouring the history of the genre with expansive, cinematic instrumental arrangements, Tod’s ultimate goal is to immerse listeners (new and old) in traditional songs through a modern lens. He certainly ticks all those boxes with his new single ‘The Coo Coo‘ (out on March 15th), the video for which premieres below – and is also our Song of the Day.
He uses the idea of the ‘crankie’ in the accompanying video, a storytelling device I first came across through the folk music duo Anna & Elizabeth, who have also used them in a live setting. The animation by Molly Little is so in keeping, resembling vintage woodcut prints and adding to the edginess of the song.
There’s a gorgeously dark underlying drone that’s accentuated by Tod’s well-worn tenor vocals while his talented band pull out all the stops on one of the best arrangements I’ve heard for this folk song. The band features Jeremy Gignoux on a haunting and highly effective viola, Laura Reid on violin, Nathan M. Godfrey on banjo, Keith Rodger on bass, Travis Miller on percussion and Opal Retzer joining Tod on some ace harmonies for the ‘Jack of Diamonds’ chorus. The whole arrangement works on every level, lending it a dark southern gothic feel. I’m looking forward to hearing more from Mike Tod.
Mike Tod on the song
“It’s one hell of an eerie, haunting song when you really pay attention to the lyrics. There’s themes of addiction, potential homelessness, and obsession over an individual. Almost creepy, but for sure scary. Everyone from Clarence Ashley on the Anthology of American Folk Music to (my personal favourite) Ramblin’ Jack Elliot have recorded it. I’d say our version shows that this song is more like a horror movie than anything else.”
and the video
“I wanted the concept for the video to follow concepts we used in the album or when I play old-time music. Meaning, taking older forms and reimagining them. For the video, we took an old form of storytelling that was popular in the 1800s, a “crankie theatre,” where a story would be illustrated over spools of paper and wound through a box. It’s like Netflix if Netflix was in the 1800s and Netflix only had one show that played over and over again and there was no electricity and you had to hand crank that one story to make it happen. So we reimagined it as an animated medium and I think that really brought it to life. It brought images in my mind to life. When I listen to this song it’s horrific, horrifying, scary. So it’s like watching a horror movie on this old pre-electric television set.”
“The Coo Coo” is the newest single from Mike Tod’s debut record, coming April 13th.