Music

Watch A Documentary in Pieces Sunday at 9pm ET

by Allan Tong

September 26, 9:00 pm and September 27, 1:00 pm ET

A van crawls along the Canadian Prairies on a lazy, sunny afternoon.  The bearded driver begins singing to himself to pass the time: “I sneak out in the morning and I watch you as you sleep…”

Then, something unexpected – and wonderful – happens.  The camera turns to a fellow sitting behind the driver.  He begins to harmonize.  Then, a plaintive violin stirs from the seat next to him, and we see that all the van is full of band members all lending their voices to a lament about farewells.  All the while, the van careens down the highway.

And so begins A Documentary In Pieces, a musical travelogue in 10 parts that follows The Wooden Sky across Canada as they play their melancholic, yet seductive brand of country-folk in the most unlikely places: canoes, parking lots, boats and even high above the Rocky Mountains.  This isn’t a standard tour movie, even though it’s their Bedrooms & Backstreets Tour.  They don’t play before packed clubs or sit down for interviews.  They barely told amongst themselves.  Instead, this band on the run plays to empty parking lots and rusty train tracks.  At most a dozen passers-by will stop as they play along a darkened waterfront.

Directed Scott Cudmore has aimed for atmosphere and mood, and the Canadian wilderness, sprawling, beautiful yet desolate, is the perfect match for Wooden Sky’s music.