The New Album

Felt like a Sunday Night was recorded over the last ten months and features the Gravel Road band - Jeff Drummond on electric guitars, lap steel, acoustic guitars, bass and vocals, Adam Esposito on drums and percussion as well as other stellar musicians such as Mike Little (Road Hammers, Mocking Shadows) on Hammond B3 Organ, John Hyde (Big Sugar, David Wilcox) on Stand Up Bass, Darren Bourne (Mocking shadows) on Upright Piano and bluegrass extraordinaire Craig Korth (Jerusalem Ridge) on Banjo, Dobro and provides some amazing flat picking on the acoustic guitar. The album was recorded and mixed by Jeff Drummond at Sundae Sound Studio's and produced by both Jeff Drummond and Cam Penner.

Felt like a Sunday Night is now available only at Cam Penner Live shows, Megatunes in Calgary and Edmonton and soon to be sold on this website.

Felt Like a Sunday Night Quotes

"Felt Like a Sunday Night, speaks or rather sings of an evolution both sonically and personally...it feels more like a Saturday night with the crunchy electric guitar lines and "riffs" tastefully handled. The infectious tempo and swampy electric guitars of Cam Penner's song 'Rye Whiskey' announced their arrival to my senses like a train rumbling through a sleepy town. The songs flow with ease between the instantly catchy country rockers like 'Rye Whiskey' and 'Be Kind' to the slow songs like 'No Stars', a waltz reminiscent of Joe Henry with backing vocals by Victoria Williams."

-BeatRoute, Tariq

"Penner's distinctive presence as a singer-songwriter is absolutely intact and in fuller bloom."

-Mary Lynn Wardle, FFWD Weekly

"Felt like a Sunday Night is a slice of pure Alberta Americana, which Penner bottles with his Lagavulin vocals, honest observations and hard-earned insights."

-Mike Bell, Journalist, Entertainment Editor, Calgary Sun

"...fans of driving music will doubtless tear up hundreds of miles with this in the player. The bluegrass 'October' heats it up on the long straight bits, while the gently Waitsy Xmas-single-in-waiting 'No Stars In The City' sooths the bumps, but whatever fills yer tank, truth to tell, there ain't a duff song on here. All killers, no fillers, as they say."

-MuleFreedom.com (UK Online Music Mag)

Get Up

Throughout the past two years, their first album Get Up has seen radio play in Canada, USA, Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand. The album has not only received radio play but has charted on a number of community radio stations across Canada and the US. Here are just some of the chart positions

#1 - University of Calgary (90.9 CJSW) folk/roots chart

#1 - University of Fredericton (97.9 CHSR) jazz/blues chart

#4 - Earshot jazz/roots chart (Canadian College Radio)

#9 - Freeform American Roots Chart(North America & Europe)

#10 - B.C. Kootenay Co-op Radio

It also charted on University of Toronto (89.5 CUIT), CKUA in Alberta and CFBX in Kamloops.

Get Up On The Charts

In January, 2004 Get Up placed at number 9 on the Freeform American Roots Chart.

In February, 2004 we reached number 4 on the !earshot jazz chart.

The summer of 2004 saw Cam Penner and the Gravel Road bring their music to appreciative audiences across western Canada, with venues ranging from cafes and bars to music festivals. The "Fill 'er Up" tour took them across Alberta and B.C., with a memorable performance at Vancouver's Marine Club with Linda McRae (formerly of Spirit of the West). A second tour, "Stompin' out the Grassfires" soon followed, taking the band through the prairies to Manitoba, a part of the country that is prominent in many Gravel road songs. The band ended this tour at the Dauphin Country Music Festival where the band put on a finely tuned performance on the festival's main stage to an audience of over 2000. The band also played festivals and gigs throughout Alberta, where they have a strong local fan base. They performed at the Roots and Blues Festival where the line-up included John Prine, Lyle Lovett, the Flatlanders and Old Reliable. In September, the band played at Waynefest where they shared the stage with Carolyn Mark, the Wailin' Jenny's, Lorrie Matheson and the Swifty's.

Get Up Quotes

"Aptly named, Cam Penner and the Gravel Road are full of twists and turns, grit, beautiful countryside and lots of soul. "Get Up" is as loose and comfy as your favourite old shirt, yet as tight musically as a great fitting pair of boots. The story range includes love lost, small towns, and isolation. A great mix of everything we love about Roots music."

-Allison Brock, Wide Cut Country, CKUA

"A roots album that charms effortlessly, yielding a rich, honest, earthy blend of the simple and familiar that's given life with timeless characters and stories born from the prairie soil."

-Mike Bell, Journalist, Entertainment Editor, Calgary Sun

"When you listen to Cam Penner & the Gravel Road, listen for the in between and you'll hear the sound of the Manitoba sky, unfurled like all creation. The album (get up) is subtly flavoured with a wistful sadness infused with an unflinching joy in living....an album that has an almost King of the Road/Sixteen Tons honesty and simplicity to it."

-Mary-Lynn McEwen, Journalist, FFWD

More Quotes

"...There's a freshness here outside comparisons that grabs me and demands attention."

-David Obermann, Folkways, KUT, Austin, Texas

"One man, one wicked-ass beard, one geetar and a truck load of shit kickin' country tunes, so authentic you can taste the dust from the speeding pickup trucks on that lonesome highway...cookin' indeed!"

-Stephen Ferguson, What's Cookin' Club, East London

"Americana doesn't have to come from America, and Canadians Cam Penner and The Gravel Road prove it beyond doubt."

-Clint Weathers, FrieghtTrainBoogie.com

"...the between-sets honour went to Cam Penner and the Gravel Road who...continued the parade of brilliant local talent. Penner and his tight, tight band play blue-collar country that's been dragged around the prairie back roads by its boots, and cooled in the long grass growing in the hills."

-Mike Bell, Blues & Roots Fest Review