Star Trails is a 2004 album by Canadian band Spirit of the West

Spirit of the West

Spirit of the West are a Canadian folk rock band, who were popular on the Canadian folk music scene in the 1980s before evolving a blend of hard rock, Britpop, and Celtic folk influences which made them one of Canada's most successful alternative rock acts in the 1990s.-Early years:The band began...

. It was their first album of new material since Weights and Measures in 1997, and their first for independent label MapleMusic Recordings

MapleMusic Recordings

MapleMusic Recordings is a Toronto based record label.The MapleMusic Recordings label is a project of Canadian roots rock band Skydiggers and entrepreneur Grant Dexter...

.

The album cover is a photograph taken at Mount Kilimanjaro. The photo is a 'star trail' photograph, where the exposure of the camera is left for a minimum of 15 minutes.

"July" was the album's first single, and the band's first significant radio hit since "Tell Me What I Think" (from the 1995 album Two Headed

Two Headed

Two Headed is a 1995 album by Spirit of the West.It is the band's darkest and heaviest album, with many songs directly addressing the subject of death...

).

"Come Back Oscar" is a tribute to Calgary musician Oscar Lopez

Oscar Lopez

Oscar Lopez is a Chilean-Canadian folk and nouveau flamenco guitarist. He has won many awards from the Latino community....

, a friend of the band's who had been absent from the folk festival

Folk music

Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....

 circuit for several years due to a battle with depression

Clinical depression

Major depressive disorder is a mental disorder characterized by an all-encompassing low mood accompanied by low self-esteem, and by loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyable activities...

. In what several music critics described as one of 2004's most thrilling moments in Canadian music, Lopez joined the band at the Calgary and Edmonton folk festivals in July to perform the song. According to one writer for the Calgary Sun

Calgary Sun

The Calgary Sun is a daily newspaper published in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. It is a division of Sun Media, a Quebecor company.First published in 1980, the tabloid-format daily replaced the long-running broadsheet newspaper, The Albertan soon after it was acquired by the publishers of the Toronto...

, "if there was a dry eye in the house, it was glass."

"King of Scotland", the album's second single, is about Idi Amin

Idi Amin

Idi Amin Dada was a military leader and President of Uganda from 1971 to 1979. Amin joined the British colonial regiment, the King's African Rifles in 1946. Eventually he held the rank of Major General in the post-colonial Ugandan Army and became its Commander before seizing power in the military...

, who once proclaimed himself king of Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 after becoming infatuated with the country on a state visit to Great Britain

Great Britain

Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

.

"Enough, Already Alright (Hello Cleveland)" takes the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is a museum located on the shore of Lake Erie in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is dedicated to archiving the history of some of the best-known and most influential artists, producers, engineers and others who have, in some major way,...

 to task for being nothing more than "a glorified Hard Rock Cafe

Hard Rock Cafe

Hard Rock Cafe is a chain of theme restaurants founded in 1971 by Americans Peter Morton & Isaac Tigrett. In 1979, the cafe began covering its walls with rock and roll memorabilia, a tradition which expanded to others in the chain. In 2006, Hard Rock was sold to the Seminole Tribe of Florida, and...

," with none of the grit and excitement that is usually associated with rock and roll music.

Track listing

All songs written by John Mann

John Mann (musician)

John F. Mann is a Canadian rock musician and actor.-Music:He is the lead vocalist for the folk rock band Spirit of the West...

 and Geoffrey Kelly

Geoffrey Kelly

Geoffrey Kelly is a Canadian rock musician.He plays guitars, flutes and bodhran for the folk rock band Spirit of the West, for whom he is also the lead vocalist on some songs. He and John Mann are the band's primary songwriters.Kelly is also a full time member of The Paperboys, and released a solo...

.

1. "Small, Small World" – 6:00
2. "Waiting for Martin" – 6:27
3. "Come Back Oscar" – 3:47
4. "July" – 3:56
5. "The Wedding Speech (Drink and Be Merry)" – 3:24
6. "Out of the Boy" – 4:03
7. "Be a Guy" – 4:36
8. "Enough, Already Alright (Hello Cleveland)" – 4:29
9. "King of Scotland" – 3:12
10. "Morning in the Bath Abbey" – 3:56