Nowhere with You: The East Coast Anthems of Joel Plaskett, the Emergency, and Thrush Hermit

Journalist O'Kane entertainingly chronicles singer-songwriter Joel Plaskett's remarkable career, first as a member of the indie rock band Thrush Hermit in the 1990s, when his hometown of Halifax, Nova Scotia was being heralded as "the next Seattle," and then as a solo artist and bandleader for the Emergency, with whom to become a Canadian icon and international folk star. The author describes how Plaskett met his Thrush Hermit bandmates while they were in high school, and skillfully depicts the East Coast alternative music scene at the time. The book offers a well-researched account of how artists such as Plaskett and Chris Murphy of Sloan made it in the tough music business, and what it took for Plaskett to do what everyone else in the scene found impossible: stay on the East Coast and build a successful career. O'Kane gives readers a clear-eyed inside view of the musician's hard work, demanding touring schedule, and other sacrifices. The book celebrates an artist who "fashioned himself as regionalist-in-chief of a lovely, if regularly overlooked, corner of Canada," took creative risks, and made it on his own terms to become one of Canada's best-loved voices. (Apr.)