Quality Americana

You feel like your walking into a desert saloon in the times before street lights as you listen to the intro for “Cold Snap” by the Coal Dust Gang.

As the drums come in you feel like you’re watching a scene from a Sergio Leone western. It’s really got that cosmic country sound.

Leap of Faith

Amos Mercier’s story starts in New Brunswick on the east coast of Canada. 

“I grew up really fundamentalist Christian,” Mercier said about his musical roots. “We sang in church and stuff like that, but it wasn’t until I got a bit older.”

Mercier took time hitchhiking across the country and exploring other spiritual practices, and went through a major life change that pushed him into songwriting.

“I had been getting into meditation, and just some of the literature I was reading was about people going on these spiritual journeys and hitchhiking and stuff, so I decided that’s what I was going to do,” Mercier said, “and just sold everything I had and packed a backpack and hit the road.” 

He’s now relocated to the west coast on Vancouver Island, and through his journey, Mercier has found hope in music and community. He’s landed in a small town that really keeps him grounded.

“Hitchhiking was a great place to see that,” Mercier said. “Just everything I needed was provided for me, and sometimes it felt like miraculous ways. There were definitely hard times where you feel like you’re not going to get picked up and sometimes it would take a long time. It would be the most random people from single soccer moms, to retired dues, or families would pick me up. I’d be sitting next to the kids, it was quite an experience.”

Cold Snap

“Cold Snap” is a fine attempt to blend spaghetti western and surf rock. 

“I had been listening to a lot of that music,” Mercier said. In the song, the main character has his heater go out and the pipes freeze and burst in his house. 

“The song is really a tragedy about someone dying in the cold in the winter.,” Mercier said. “We would get these wicked cold snaps where all of a sudden for like a week they would even cancel school because it would be so cold. He went outside and tried to get into his truck, and ended up slipping and getting stuck in the snow and dying.”

Mercier won a local contest for emerging artists that helped fund the project. You can purchase the full album on Bandcamp before the wide release.

Hey Buddy was recorded. mixed and mastered at Barnhouse Studio by Justin La Pointe. It includes Mercier on vocals and rhythm guitar, Taze Kozak on lead guitar and lap steel, Tereza Tomek on bass, Adam Casey on drums and Jim Lambert on lead guitar.

Support the Artist

Off the stage, Mercier spends time as a chef for the local school district, pulling from his background in restaurant work while curating a food program for students.

More information about the Coal Dust Gang can be found here.