Rock and roll comes to town. With the first chord, the room starts to sweat with the fists of a thousand weekends beating against its chest. The floor becomes a stomping ground for true love’s angry soldiers. The night is taken back in a declaration of war against the daytime, like a bomb that flattens a city in a roar only to leave it calm and still and shattered come the morning. Devastating and life-altering. A Peace Maker.

2009 saw the release of Eamon McGrath’s debut “13 Songs of Whiskey and Light,” a compilation of the standout tracks from 18 records. The release saw critical acclaim, including being named “Album of the Year” from the Ottawa Citizen–who also called him “the next great thing in rock and roll.”

After a European solo tour and two cross-Canada tours supporting “13 Songs,” McGrath headed into what would be a six-day retreat in Vancouver’s JC/DC Studios with John Collins of the New Pornographers and Dave Carswell of the Evaporators with over 20 songs he’d written about broken hearts, empty bottles, and loud guitars: stories of retribution, redemption, and resurrection.

The result is “Peace Maker”: bridging gaps between McGrath’s Albertan, prairie roots, and the spirit of punk rock that fills both his lungs and his words, “Peace Maker” is rock and roll and country music that’s punctuated with an adolescent howl served straight, no ice; with its roots in an urban centre that stands tall like a tower in the emptiness of Canada’s heartland.

“There’s an openness and honesty to the lyrics that belies his tender age and he can carry a song with the slenderest of help…he sounds around double his age and he sounds like someone who will still be worth listening to when he is forty two.”

- Americana UK

“The teenage kick in his raw Saturday night energy is even more authentically prodigious…his rasping Waitsian voice suggests an unlived lifetime spent in low company in smoke-filled bars. (4 stars)”

- Uncut Magazine

Ottawa Citizen gives “13 Songs of Whiskey and Light” BEST ALBUM OF 2009!