Megan Hamilton & The Volunteer Canola

created by A.C. Ellison
It all started in the bathroom of an apartment that had once housed the early players in the Toronto Punk Rock scene. Megan Hamilton and award-winning sound designer Mark Vogelsang decided to lay down some songs, and spent a frosty January day recording music and telling jokes. The results would become Megan's first demo and the experience fostered a working relationship that continues to flourish.
Megan and Mark next set up in the old Feudal Hall in Saskatchwan. Amongst the prairie grass, the smell of sage, full moons and coyotes howling in the fields, they were fuelled by coffee, bourbon and granola bars. Crickets, trucks, dog-panting, feet slapping on the floor – all of the noises one would expect to hear in an old hall in the middle of the prairie can be found layered in the songs, if you listen closely, on Feudal Ladies Club, Megan’s first album.
Mark and Megan headed back to the prairie, this time in a church, and created how we think about light, a six-song EP. Both albums are on the Familiar Music label which Megan founded with Shelby Lamb ( The Shelby Lamb Band ), Steve Puchalski ( Deromantic ) and Gary Peter ( These Electric Lives , Products of Better Living ).
Solo or with the band, Megan has played all over Ontario, Quebec and all of the Eastern provinces, as well as Kentucky, Alabama and Texas, sharing the stage with many amazing bands. The Volunteer Canola are recently returned from dates with Deromantic on the STEEL LION BURNING TRAIN tour.
Exclaim!, Amanda Ash "Hamilton has a natural knack for tying in the airy, experimental side of folk music with a touch of psychedelic rock, a mix that wrangles in any listener that crosses the Toronto-based artist’s path."
i (heart) music "...it's definitely something you need to hear if you haven't already."
Metro (Toronto) * * * * "Echoing vocals and splashes of electric guitar create a tripy ’60s pop sound that is both captivating and narcotic."
Chromewaves , Frank Yang " It picks up where the full-length left off, with its woozily playful countryisms and heads off to a more high, lonesome and autumnal place with some new production tricks (My Morning Jacket called - they want their reverb back) and even some rock attitude in tow."
Indie Folk Forever "I've been playing it on repeat for a few days running."