Cedar and Spruce Music

BIOGRAPHY

Ian Jeff Dave Alan

Cedar & Spruce began as the The Mississauga Guitar Quartet back in the spring of 1999. Its members Jeff Cardey, Ian Chamberlain, David Hills and Alan Shoesmith were introduced through their associations with The Mississauga Guitar Society, the Guitar Program at University of Toronto and studies with legendary guitar teacher Eli Kassner.

The group was originally conceived as a classical guitar quartet based on the model established by famous quartets such as The Romeros and The L.A. Guitar Quartet. Over time the group’s music evolved as the quartet began to incorporate more musical styles and a greater diversity of fretted instruments into their live show. It was in the spring of 2000 that Cedar & Spruce began making an annual appearance to rave reviews at the Mississauga Living Arts Centre, this lasted 5 years (2000-2004). In early 2001 the group changed its name to Cedar & Spruce in order to better reflect its artistic direction. The name was inspired by the woods that are used to construct the sound board for acoustic guitars. Cedar & Spruce also has a Canadian flare to it.

They made their self-titled debut classical guitar quartet CD in the winter of 2001 and launched the CD at the Living Arts Centre in Mississauga that spring. This first album focused primarily on 20^th century guitar quartet works and was recorded at Alan’s home studio in Maple, Ontario. Everything was recorded live-off-the-floor direct to DAT tape and then digitally edited on the computer. Two original compositions were also presented : The Cobbler (by Ian and Jeff) and Knots (by Alan). It received some national radio airplay and was well received by our fans.

In 2002, C & S were top ten finalists in the Hockey Night in Canada Theme contest and were featured on Hockey Day in Canada. After their annual concert at The Mississauga Livings Arts Centre the group travelled to Winnipeg, Manitoba to act as clinicians at the Honour Guitar Festival.

Throughout 2003 and 2004 Cedar & Spruce continued to fuse the classical guitar sound of their debut album with a more rootsy and eclectic swing, bluegrass, latin, celtic and new age approach. One of the highlights of 2004 was performing alongside Rik Emmett as part of the Six and Twelve concert series. In addition, the quartet moved their act from the more formal concert stage to the more casual bar/jazz club scene atmosphere. The primary instrument line-up became Jeff on mandolin, Ian on steel string guitar, Dave on nylon string guitar and Alan on bass.

Beginning in July of 2003 the quartet examined the music that they had been playing live and set to work on their 2^nd album “beyond 9 mile”. A different approach was adopted this time around. The album was assembled more like a modern rock album where the parts were tracked one by one. The mobile laptop studio made this project possible because it allowed Alan Shoesmith, the group’s recording engineer, to capture performances in several different environments. Once they got underway the arrangements also grew far beyond the live versions. Many of the tunes feature lush layers of fretted instruments…almost like a guitar orchestra. In addition, the front cover photo taken by David Hills and the artwork by Anneliese Voigt capture effectively the overall mood of the album.

“Beyond 9 Mile” was released in October, 2006. It is currently available at CD Baby and at our live shows.