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By Bliss Bowen

Eric Corne’s new album, Kid Dynamite and the Common Man, is the culmination of a circuitous journey — one that’s taken him from the thriving Toronto indie-rock scene with space pop band Mysterio, to being mentored in Los Angeles by widely respected producer and bassist Dusty Wakeman at Mad Dog Studios, which Corne affectionately calls “Roots Central.” As Mad Dog’s go-to engineer and producer — Wakeman’s handpicked successor — Corne, whose recording credits include the likes of Lucinda Williams, Glen Campbell, DeVotchKa, Joanna Wang and Michelle Shocked, has befriended a cast of blue-chip players who animate Kid Dynamite & The Common Man.

The roster of musicians who responded to Corne’s call reads like a who’s-who of LA rock and roots royalty: Richie Hayward (Little Feat), Greg Leisz (Wilco), Doug Pettibone (Lucinda Williams), Brian MacLeod (Sheryl Crow), Santa Davis (Peter Tosh), Skip Edwards (Dwight Yoakam), Stephen Hodges (Tom Waits), Gia Ciambotti (Bruce Springsteen), Freddy Koella (Bob Dylan), Dave Raven (Mike Ness), Johnny Bazz (the Blasters), Carl Byron (Michelle Shocked), Sasha Smith (Jesca Hoop), Danny Frankel (k.d. lang), C.C. White (Joe Cocker), Eamon Ryland and Brett Borges of Humdinger, and of course, Dusty Wakeman (Jim Lauderdale). Nick Urata of Denver's DeVotchKa sings background on two tracks.

Corne, a native of Winnipeg, started recording demos in his Toronto basement in 2004, while taking a break from Mysterio. During that same period he accepted an invitation to visit Los Angeles. A fortuitous meeting with Wakeman convinced him to relocate his family to LA and accept a position at Mad Dog, where he retreated from performing and focused on sharpening his studio skills. Eventually, Wakeman encouraged him to record Kid Dynamite at Mad Dog.

Comprised of 10 thematically linked songs, Kid Dynamite and the Common Man deals with the search for a rightful place, and meaning, in a landscape of shifting alliances and absolutes. Corne, who majored in political science at Montreal’s McGill University, refrains from revealing specifics, but it’s clear that these songs, which incubated over a six-year period, are his response to global events in the wake of 9/11. Tracks like “Not Familiar,” “Blackguard” and “Evil Men” are rife with images of duplicity and paranoia, while “Dead End” and “Common Man” seek to build bridges of connection and understanding.

“Most of the songs are about conflict,” he acknowledges, “whether it’s man vs. himself or man vs. society.”

“When I was demoing tracks myself, the songs had more of an indie-rock vibe,” Corne recalls. “Bringing in all these other musicians, the songs became more expansive, allowing me to explore various styles more deeply.”

“I focused a lot on how I would ‘cast’ the songs,” Corne says, “because there are so many people on this record. I work with many of them regularly, and while it’s not uncommon to get people of that renown to play on a record, what is a little uncommon is to have so many people of that calibre playing on one record. That makes it even more interesting. You produce in a different way when you bring in musicians like that. A lot of the production is in the casting, and then you’re just steering it to make sure the feel and instrumentation are right.”

Listening to the guitar-fueled title track and the relatively pastoral “Trampolines,” it’s clear Corne’s influenced by another Canadian headquartered in America: Neil Young. He also points to writers like Lou Reed, Elvis Costello and Joe Strummer as important influences. In the studio, Corne had a strong vision for the direction of individual songs but is quick to also give credit to the musicians for their inspiration and creativity.

Two of the songs date back to his Mysterio days: the seductively lilting “Not Familiar” and “Evil Men,” which rides the tension between Skip Edwards’ rollicking piano and Freddy Koella’s nasty slide guitar. “Nobody Plays Here Anymore” throws some reggae spice into the mix, while the somewhat autobiographical “Stop and Stare” encapsulates the album’s overall theme. “It’s kind of a "Crossroads" tale but in a prairie setting. It's about the compromises you have to make to move forward, and what guides you better than anything else: your gut and your conscience. If you trust that, usually you’re OK...But we all get tempted by bigger things.”

Corne is releasing the record under his own imprint, Forty Below Records, which he plans to use as a launching pad for other artists he’s producing at Mad Dog.