The Salt Cellars release third CD

By Kristena Schutt-Moore

The Salt Cellars are releasing their third CD and will be celebrating it on Saturday, Aug. 13 at the Historic Dominic Hotel in Minden. The event starts at 7 p.m. and tickets will be $13 to $16.

The Salt Cellars have been together for almost 20 years, and started with singer/songwriter/guitarist Rob Bersan and singer/songwriter/guitarist Virginia deCarle started writing and performing together. Then keyboard and harmonica player Ron Kapitain joined about five years ago, followed by bass player Richard Joudrey and harmony vocalist Anne Wilde. During the night of the concerts Brendon Burgess will be joining as a special guest performer on the drums. The opening performer for the band will be Albert John Saxby.

This CD will be the band's third album, and it is called Inside These Walls and it features special guests such as Juno award winner/Grammy nominee Jane Bunnett on alto flute, Hugh March on violin, and Scott Stuart on steel guitar. 

The band's two previous albums were called Truth and Crooked Tree. Once released their third album will be available for purchase next to the other two online, on Band Camp and on iTunes. The CDs will also be available for purchase at the Art Gallery of Bancroft, the Carriage House, and Maple Leaf General Store.

The Salt Cellars have an eclectic style of music and they play and mix in all types of music into their songs. From folk to blues, jazz to Canadiana, and with Inside These Walls all the songs are originally written by deCarle and Bersan. Each song tells its own story.

The title song of the CD Inside These Walls was written about the old deserted houses by the roadside. DeCarle says she has always been fascinated by those houses and the stories they might have. “I wondered about them and their stories, and what happened for them to just be deserted. Did they lose it to the bank, did someone pass away and not have someone to pass the home on to? You know, what happened for the home to be standing there in the middle of the field with nobody to love it.” 

Other songs such as Wild Love is a romantic love song, while My Heart Lies is a bit more of a cheeky song where it talks about winning the heart over and proving oneself. There is also a song about environmental issues and how fast paced life has become with all the videos and streaming on phones and computers called Wake Up. The CD is a real mixture of songs, stories and genres. All the lyric sheets will be inside the album cover so that people can read or sing along and get their own take on each song's story. 

The band's name, The Salt Cellars, has a story of its own. deCarle says that one night her and her husband Barry were sitting around the table talking and he turned to her and said that she had very deed salt cellars. She didn't know what he meant, so he explained that that is what his Nan used to call the grooves made from a person's collar bones. deCarle loved the term and looked it up and found out that salt cellars were small crystal dishes of salt that each person got at the table in Victorian times, before salt shakers were invented. 

Those interested in getting tickets to the CD release concert can reach out to the Dominion Hotel online at www.dominionhotelpub.ca, or by going on the band's website at www.thesaltcellarsband.com. 

The Salt Cellars will also be performing at Mineral Capital Concerts at Millenium Park  on Aug. 17, and they will have their CDs available there.