I was asked last night about my top 10 albums of 2025. The year isn’t over yet, but this next record will be in contention to make the list.
Disc 1884 is… One More Dollar to Go
Artist: Jake Vaadeland
Year of Release: 2025
What’s up with the Cover? Jake Vaadeland kicks it old school. For Jake “kickin’ it” is putting on a suit and posing respectfully with your guitar.
How I Came To Know It: Whenever a festival comes to town, I make a point of listening to every artist ahead of time, so I know when to show up and when to leave each day. Often it is the early acts that catch my ear over the headliners. Frankly, by the time the headliners come on the audience is typically less engaged with the music, not more. Many would decry such claims later when showing the snippets they filmed on their i-Phones, but we who were there for the music saw what we saw.
But I digress…
Jake Vaadeland was one of the acts at this year’s Rifflandia, so I checked him out ahead of time. I loved it so much I made sure to show up early. Once I was at the show I bought both his LPs (and a t-shirt to boot) from the merch booth. And here we are…
How It Stacks Up: I have two Jake Vaadeland albums. They are both excellent, but “One More Dollar to Go” is #1.
Ratings: 4 stars but almost 5
Jake Vaadeland is unapologetically traditional. He is so traditional you will swear these are songs your mom used to play when you were a kid, maybe even your grandpa. You’d be wrong though, Vaadeland just writes tunes that are so timeless you think they’ve been around forever.
Writing original songs with a style and genre dating back anywhere from fifty to ninety years ago that are not derivative is damn hard. About as hard as writing a great pop hook, and way less appreciated. Vaadeland rises again and again to this challenge. In the process he has created a record that has potential to have the same staying power of the artists he honours.
That style sits somewhere in a golden nexus of heart-worn Hank Williams Sr. honky tonk, the bluegrass mastery of Bill Monroe, and the high-floating quaver of Johnny Horton. If that sounds like some impressive company, you’d be right. Vaadeland’s style floats in and out and around all three of these greats and in the process finds his own space to hunker down and do right.
Vaadeland’s vocals are sneaky good. So sneaky you don’t notice on any individual song, but across the full record you realize just how much range he has from the top of his head voice down into the almost Elvis growl of his lower register. He isn’t a show-off about it either, letting his vocal performance sit down easy into the song as one of many complementary parts.
The other parts come courtesy of his backing band, the Sturgeon River Boys. These fellas are a fine match indeed. Sometimes they mosey through a song, and sometimes they play a furious torrent of notes, but slow or fast they are always clean and precise.
With this kind of music that precision is critical, or you’ve got one hell of a mess on your hands. There is no room for being off the beat on this music, which is often front-end loaded and leaning dangerously forward through every chord shift.
Even played well, this style can veer off and become technical and emotionally empty, but that never happens. The record is warm and engaging throughout. If anything you feel like you’ve been invited over to the Vaadeland family home and an impromptu concert has broken out in the living room. Move the chairs, push the couches against the wall, and dance with your partner.
Much like the musical backdrop, the lyrics are very old school without ever feeling fake or forced. “One More Dollar to Go” is a modern classic about being broke. Being broke is never fun, but this song sure gives you reason to celebrate anyway. Never was being down to your last dollar so joyfully delivered.
“Hot Headed Woman” is about a woman who is hard to love and hard not to, and equal parts uncomfortable and sly in its character study. It’s not a healthy relationship, but the song’s restless energy is a case study in how some folks are just drawn to things that aren’t good for them.
“One More Dollar” and “Hot Headed Woman” are both up-tempo tunes which belie their sad subject matter. Elsewhere, Vaadeland shows his range with the slow and tragic tunes like “Old White Home” and “Neath the Shade of the Tree.”
Despite his old-school style, Vaadeland is fresh and energetic throughout. His love for this music is not a mere mask he puts on, but resides in his bones. This joy flows out of his songwriting and delivery alike, creating a record that gets better and better on every listen.
Best tracks: One More Dollar to Go, Hot Headed Woman, Old White Home, Don’t Go to the Valley, Lonesome Motor Inn, Neath the Shade of the Tree, A Glass of Wine Will Fix It Every Time
The Concert: December 7, 2025 at the Capital Ballroom, Victoria BC
Having seen Vaadeland earlier this year at Rifflandia (read more about that weekend immediately following the Sleater-Kinney review here) I was excited for what I knew was going to be a good show.
We were also cagey about getting there early. The Capital Ballroom is a lovely space but seating with good sightlines is limited and to score any, you gotta get there before the crowd does.
With this in mind we arrived 45 minutes before curtain but as ill-luck would have it there was a collection of fellow “olds” that had already secured all the prime balcony spots. I settled for a floor table that I knew from past experience was both awesome (near the soundboard/mixer) but fraught with peril (subject to random tall dudes standing in front of you.
As it happened, things broke in the likely fashion, with both great sound AND a part of the show starting partly at the back of some dude’s head. So it goes…
The set was richly decorated with old-time furniture and a lit Christmas tree, and put you into a mood that was both festive and comfortable. Into this scene landed Vaadeland and his Sturgeon River Boys, striking up the music and immediately dialing up the energy to 10.
Album play is one thing, but playing these kinds of furiously quick tunes live without a hitch is another level, and yet the boys were flawless – or at least so near flawless my amateur ear never caught the error. The bass player (not the one from the record) particularly enraptured me, with tasty low-end licks that both kept the time (the band has no drummer) and then made that time jump and bounce.
This being Christmas time, Vaadeland did a couple of carols, including a medley of tunes sung in tight harmony. This could’ve been a bit stuffy, but it was far from it, and I found myself enjoying old Christmas songs in a way I hadn’t done in years.
Vaadeland’s originals are what I had really come to see, however, and I was not disappointed. The set featured a good range of his many old-timey styles, all played with grace and energy.
From time to time, Vaadeland would hold his guitar up alongside his ear. I imagined it was whispering secrets to him, but it could’ve just been him checking the tuning. Whatever it was, he never missed a cue regardless of where he swung his axe.
The show was highly scripted, with the exact same banter I’d heard at the Rifflandia set, albeit expanded with the bigger set-list. This stuff is pretty great the first time you hear it but lacks the organic feel on multiple run-throughs. A minor quibble, in an otherwise thoroughly uplifting and entertaining show. That banter includes mid-set “advertisements for our sponsors,” where Vaadeland shills for Pepsi and a vintage clothing store in Saskatoon called “Better Off Duds” in true old school fairground style. I looked “Better Off Duds” up later and can confirm that, just like Diet Pepsi, it’s real.
The audience was…average. For the most part well-behaved and appreciative, but there were a small minority that talked loudly through portions of the set. I’m not sure why people come to a music show to talk through it, but there are plenty of sports bars that can accommodate that behaviour. I wish they’d gone there instead.
At the end of the concert, Vaadeland thanked both the technical team that ran the sound, but also the venue staff. It was a nice touch from a class act.
If you get a chance to see Jake Vaadeland and the Sturgeon River Boys live I encourage you to go. You’re in for a good time, although you may leave with a strange desire to drink a Diet Pepsi and shop vintage.
