Ghost Woman

Legend has it she still haunts the corridors of that old Three Hills motel which was mysteriously abandoned for decades, as if she’d always belonged there. A soul trapped between the living and the dead, wandering aimlessly through crumbling walls, chasing something she never once had while she lived. So who exactly is this mysterious ghost woman? The answer might be scarier than anything you could have imagined.

And… cut! That’s a wrap! With a band name this phantasmagoric, the temptation to run wild with a Hitchcockian script was simply too strong to resist. Alright, director’s cap off, reel switched — time to tell the real story of Canadian multi-instrumentalist Evan Uschenko, aka Ghostwoman.

Born and raised in Alberta, the Canadian grew up surrounded by vast open spaces and long stretches of solitude, with music as his only real refuge. Raised by a blues-obsessed mother and a father devoted to American country folk, the young man had the perfect soil for his future to take root.

Once grown, the ghost man launched his career playing in several outfits, including one led by his close collaborator Michael Rault, at whose side he quickly made himself indispensable. Through that partnership, Uschenko sharpened his craft on tour and crossed paths with several future pillars of the neo-psych scene, among them Jacco Gardner, King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard and Mild High Club.

Between the usual hazards of the touring musician’s life — stolen gear, fires, breakups and endless relocations — the experience shaped his sound and eventually pushed him out of the shadows to launch his own project in 2016: Ghostwoman. The result is enough to make bigger names blush, a flawless blend of retro garage psych rooted in sixties touchstones (Jefferson Airplane, The Byrds) filtered through a contemporary lens (Allah-Las, The Black Angels). Though the compulsive multi-instrumentalist carries the project’s DNA alone, Uschenko wants his music to feel like a band effort, backed by his partner Ille van Dessel on drums and his fellow traveler Nick Hay on strings — a lineup that elevates this excellent debut, marked by dissonant guitars, a hypnotic pulse and a cavernous voice laying bare heartbreak and false hope.

Roll on October 31st. BOO!