Starpainter’s dreamy musical landscapes, sporting openness and clarity, mirror the wide, wild open prairie surrounding the band’s hometown of Lethbridge. With songs sounding like they’re drifting aloft static on the radio in the basement of a Big Pink house, the present fades over the horizon as the past grows larger in the rearview mirror. Formed in 2019, the band has released two albums, including this year’s Rattlesnake Dream, where easygoing melodies rove desert vistas approaching Laurel Canyon, or, well, maybe the Oldman River Valley. Still, the effect is a trippy journey to count constellations out past the edge of town before returning to the worn, familiar, comforting streets and vignettes of everyday life, longing, and heartache. Airy sepia tones leave lots of space for dreaming, for remembering, for wishing it had been different.
Biography by Mary-Lynn Wardle