Quality Americana

Vancouver Island’s The Unfaithful Servants continue our bluegrass themed week with their beautiful album Fallen Angel.

Vancouver Island

“I moved out to B.C. when I was nineteen.“ Dylan Stone said. “I got a one way ticket and rambled around and found my way onto Vancouver Island. It’s just absolutely gorgeous. It’s totally God’s country.” 

Lead Singer and Guitarist Stone started out playing music in high school.

“I always joked that I would be a better guitar player if my sister didn’t smash my guitar when I had one when I was about eight years old,” Stone said with a laugh. “I had a little guitar I started playing that my Mom got me and my sister played with that and honky-tonked me.” 

We can imagine Stone was talking about the Honky Tonk Man, a professional wrestler that dressed like Elvis and would often smash guitars over his opponents heads. 

Stone started out playing the popular music of his day. The headbanging music from bands like Slipknot and Korn. 

“We would go down to Toronto and play in these dingy hardcore clubs,” Stone said. “Headbang in the moshpit and all that. I was just a frontman on the vocals.” 

Stone said those old recordings still hold weight today, but at the time he also found a love for Bob Dylan and Tom Petty. 

“My musical tastes really started to shift away from what I was being presented culturally as a teenager into stuff that resonated more deeply,” Stone said.

The Unfaithful Servants

The Unfaithful Servants formed in 2017 after Stone discovered country music through the Rolling Stones and Graham Parsons. 

“I started getting into acoustic music and writing acoustic songs,” Stone said, “putting acoustic bands together.”

The push into bluegrass came from meeting Jesse Cobb, the mandolinist in the group.

“He’s like a true bluegrass… or he grew up playing bluegrass,” Stone said. “Nashville guy.” 

Cobb moved to Canada to be closer to his wife’s family where they first collaborated. They’re now gaining momentum in the U.S., and are getting spots on the bluegrass festival scene. 

“I’ve listened to a lot of Townes Van Zandt,” Stone said about his sound that seems more restrained than some of the bands on the bluegrass scene. “He said ‘there’s only two types of music: the blues and zippedee doo da.’ The music I write is colored with the blues a little more. I don’t know if that’s just me or the surroundings, or what it is.” 

Support the Artist

Fallen Angel was recorded at Down To Earth Studio with Adrian Dolan at the helm and includes Quin Etheridge-Pedden on fiddle and Mark Johnson on the bass.

“We tried our best to capture our live sound and the essence of all of us playing together in circle,” Stone said. “We wanted to get a raw honest sound to the songs. We also wanted the album to feel cohesive and complete, like a whole piece, so we were very conscious of the song choices and track listings for flow, vibe and continuity.”

More information about The Unfaithful Servants can be found here.

Subscribe with your email below for your Song of the Day.