Best Songwriter

Plaskett’s newest album leaves little doubt why Haligonians keep voting him Best Songwriter in The Coast’s annual Best of Halifax awards: At 49 years old, he doesn’t need loud guitars or heavy drums to be heard, and his pen has sharpened over the years, whether writing folksy, Dylan-esque tunes about guests who overstay their welcome (“Rainy Day Janey”) or spoken-word pieces about aging and self-discovery (“The New Joys”).

Dartmouth’s favourite folk-rocker went back to basics on his eleventh solo album. On One Real Reveal, Plaskett recorded everything on a four-track cassette machine with a single microphone.

“Once you have a limitation like that, it sort of helps you rein in the arrangements, but you can’t bury them,” he told The Coast in May. “Sometimes it’s almost easier to add than it is to subtract, or to leave it be and be happy with it when you’re used to hearing things that are more fully arranged.”