Fervor Coulee Bluegrass Blog

The Western Thistles- The Western Thistles

Donald Teplyske  |  August 16, 2025

Funny how time slips away during a series of memorable months. Seemingly one week we are basking in the warmth of April's false promise, and the next the chill of autumn is curing the leaves of nearby river valleys.

The Western Thistles released their debut album a season ago, and I've had it in hand for several weeks. Time doesn't always allow for focused listening and consideration, so needs demand that some things wait.

Edmonton duo The Western Thistles (Sabrina 'Bri' Huot and Mark Boer) demonstrate the intimate folk-country-old time vibe Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, Kacy & Clayton, Sarah Lee Guthrie and Johnny Irion have successful mastered over several decades. Distinguishing these Edmontonians are the flavours their approach to writing, playing, and singing emphasize within their original material, augmented by some of the most impressive players on the local 'acoustic-sounding' scene.

Both Huot and Boer have voices absolutely ideal for their chosen music. When Bri launches into "Season or A Dime's" opening couplet—"I'm sleeping in a cold and lonesome bed; should be home with you but here I am instead,"—one feels the lonesome pull of responsibility that has timelessly populated folk and traditional music since the earliest days of commercially recorded sound—since The Carter Family, certainly—and long before.

Hout's voice is a joy to experience, and that is taking nothing away from Boer's own contributions. He sings with heartfelt, country soul in "Barroom Stool," a welcome drinking number on which Hout duets with him, "I could never quit loving you": it isn't about the alcohol, it's the honesty one remembers.

The album is produced by the duo with Miles Wilkinson co-producing and lending his attuned ears to engineering and mastering (Wilkinson was involved in the recording of Anne Murray and Emmylou Harris' earliest albums, a handful of Darrell Scott and Guy Clark projects, while also working on "A Star Is Born" and "The Rose" soundtracks). Safe to say then that the recording doesn't only sound great, it sounds great.

Joining Huot (guitar) and Boer (guitar and banjo, mostly of the clawhammer style while I hear a discern a Scruggs roll within "Season Or a Dime") are #YEG standouts Byron Myhre (fiddle) and Marc Ladouceur (mandolin), both with deep bluegrass pedigrees which enlighten the album's ten tracks. Jeff Bradshaw (Dobro) and Don Marcotte (bass) also appear, as does Maria Dunn (accordion). Outside of Logan Gray's spoons on "When the Cherry Tree Blossoms," that's the extent of the recording credits—a tight ensemble, then.

The opening guitar notes to "Working Man" are simply beautiful, and with Bri singing from a masculine perspective, she reveals her ability to transcend pre-conceived expectations of the male-female format. Shades of "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" slip into this one, although no one is clandestinely sneaking out of this relationship.

"Old House" also seems of another era while "Blue Collared Boy" could be based on a long-ago Child Ballad, so precise and refined are its lyrical turns.

A pair of instrumentals—the aforementioned "When the Cherry Tree Blossoms" and "Brushy Fork of John's Creek"—both evocative and lively are included.

Despite its traditional underpinnings, the album is quite contemporary in its sound and lyrical content. Audiences will always pine for the closeness Boer and Huet effortlessly capture, and their songs—about home, work, relationships, shortcomings, and the pleasure nature releases—will always be relevant. "That's the Way" most certainly.

Coming in at just over thirty-two minutes, The Western Thistles is a compact recording without extraneous elements to massage ego. The duo has chosen to include only essential elements to enlighten their vision, and have done so with considerable acoustic elegance.