Down at the Khyber, recorded in the fall of 2000, is the first Joel Plaskett album with his band The Emergency, which included Dave Marsh from The Super Friendz. With its release, Plaskett began to enjoy widespread acclaim, especially at the CBC, as Down at the Khyber was seen by many to fulfil the promise he had shown with Thrush Hermit. Plaskett has said that "Thrush Hermit were caught up in indie rock, and being perceived as cool... [with The Emergency] we kind of shed that."
Down at the Khyber was nominated as Best Alternative Album at the 2002 Juno Awards and ranked 46th in Bob Mersereau's The Top 100 Canadian Albums and 82nd in CBC Radio's 100 Greatest Canadian Albums Ever list. AllMusic gave it just three stars (out of 5), but called it "a solid rock record by one of Canada's finest emerging songwriters."
I just bought this album, picking it up used from The Beat Goes On, after seeing Joel and his father Bill play in Waterloo last month, but it seems to have disappeared from/into my shelves. Bill Plaskett does appear on one track here, and he and Joel covered several of the songs from this album, including "True Patriot Love," a sort of new national anthem, at the Starlight show.
| Hometown: | Lunenburg, Nova Scotia |
| Label: | Brobdingnagian |
| Release Date: | 10 July 2001 |
| Producer: | Ian McGettigan, Joel Plaskett |
| Style: | rock |
| Mar*Star 125: | did not exist |
| Mar*Star 150: | 43 |
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Track Listing
Personnel
