Richard Laviolette – A little less like a rock, a little more like home

NOTE: “A little less like a rock…” is available as a limited edition LP, or as a 32 page songbook which features full lyrics, chord transcriptions and tabs, along with introductory and a contextual essays in a large format 10×8″ book riso-graph printed by Colour Code. The COMBO option includes both the LP and the songbook

Richard Laviolette (1982–2023) released his second record a little less like a rock, a little more like home on CD in 2006 on Burnt Oak Records, an artist-run co-operative and independent record label co-founded by Brad MacInerny, Ryan Newell and jiaqing wilson-yang, active between 2005 and 2007. Burnt Oak was based out of a rented house at 127 Grange Street in Guelph, Ontario, where the collective lived, rehearsed, hung out, and hosted all ages shows, also recording each others’ music, packing and mailing CD orders, and silkscreening and sewing the covers for the albums they released.

Combining folk, rock, and country influences, a little less like a rock, a little more like home is a beloved lo-fi classic of brilliant songwriting and powerful vocals, animated by Richard’s deeply held anti-capitalist, anti-colonial, DIY, and community-based ethos. It includes some of Richard’s most timeless songs and performances, including the unclassifiable magic of Qq, the shockingly intimate and utterly cosmic Ants vs. Universe, and the beautifully fingerpicked folk-song Oncoming Trains. You’ve Changed Records is proud to present this first ever vinyl pressing.

The album was recorded in a small studio above a music equipment rental store on Essex Street in Guelph, and in true Richard fashion, he had a whole community of people who appeared on the record with him: Jessy Bell Smith singing harmonies, Ryan Newell and jiaqing wilson-yang on upright bass, Kevin Barnhorst on bass, glockenspiel, and electro-organ, Michelle Doucette on ukulele, Brad McInerney on percussion, and Jonathan Ely Cass on drums. The last song on the record features Richard’s parents and extended family, who travelled to Guelph one weekend to record Fussin’ and Fightin’: his grandma Pat Robinson plays the piano, his dad Darrell Laviolette plays the violin, cousins Michael and Tommy Snider play the guitar and shaker, his Aunt Cathy plays the accordion, and his mom Marie Laviolette, his Aunt Bernice, and cousins Julian and Alanna Weaver are all clapping along. As Richard writes at the bottom of the liner notes: “and Everybody sang.”