There’s a quiet pleasure in following an artist’s career across the years, and KLOF has had the long privilege of doing so with Pharis & Jason Romero. The Horsefly, British Columbia duo — JUNO-winning songwriters and master banjo builders, a pair who’ve spent close to two decades exploring “how to sing like one person” — return on June 12th with These Are The Days That Turn In To Years, their seventh studio album, released via Free Dirt Records. The late David Morrison was an early and unwavering champion of the duo in these pages (he moved from the UK to Vancouver Island in 2006 and frequently wrote about musicians from British Columbia), reviewing Sweet Old Religion (2018), Bet on Love (2020) and Tell ‘Em You Were Gold (2022), the last of which made his end-of-year top ten. Their 2015 album, A Wanderer I’ll Stay, was also reviewed by Paul Woodgate.
Writing about Bet On Love in 2020, Morrison observed that — between raising their family and running J. Romero Banjos — the Romeros worked on their music every day, purely for pleasure: “like breathing and eating, it’s what they do.” Six years on, that continuity is precisely what the new record reaches for, in songs saturated with the textures of incidental touring, raising two kids, building banjos, and playing because they love to.
Recorded once again at the duo’s eclectically restored riverside barn in Horsefly, the new album is described in press notes as “a songwriter’s deep exhale, replete with stories, love, and nostalgia.” Four years on from their banjo-heavy 2022 record, Pharis’s love of storytelling anchors the songs, which draw on mountain summits, phone calls with ageing loved ones, insomnia, meditation and family feuds.
Their lead single Last Call, took shape after a phone call between Pharis and her father, trying not to dwell on the thought that any call might be the last. It gathers tender, funny and strange snapshots from a long life, anchored by the sing-along chorus last call for old times, last call to you. Jason takes the banjo, Pharis the guitar, with Trent Freeman on fiddle and Patrick Metzger on bass; the band’s on-the-edge old-time approach stretches the melody into an energetic ride.
Their latest single and title track These Are The Days is gentler and more devotional, Trent Freeman returning on fiddle alongside Clinton Davis on piano and Patrick Metzger on bass. Its accompanying lyric video, filmed by Pharis herself and edited by Freeman, follows what she calls their “mermaid daughter swimming in the lake” — an intimate companion to a song about holding still in the time you have.
John Raham (Frazey Ford, Dan Mangan, Tanya Tagaq, Ocie Elliott) engineered, mixed and plays percussion, marking his fifth Romero record made in the Horsefly barn. “I can’t imagine making a record without him, Trent (Freeman) or Patrick (Metzger),” says Pharis. “The songs are created as much from ideas as they are from the joy of playing and recording with friends and stellar musicians.” Pharis’s sister Marin Patenaude contributes vocals to the insomnia-inspired Last Night, and the duo keep to their roots with the spare banjo blues Left My Home.
Pre-Order: https://pharisjasonromero.bandcamp.com/album/these-are-the-days-that-turn-in-to-years
UPCOMING PERFORMANCES
Mon June 22 – Port Townsend, WA – Voice Works 2026
Sat July 11 – Horsefly, BC – Arts on the Fly
Thu July 16 – Williams Lake, BC – Performances in the Park
Thu August 6 – Salt Spring Island, BC – Pitchfork Social