The Wooden Sky On World Cafe

In this session, I'm bringing a little bit of my hometown of Toronto to you by way of The Wooden Sky. The band first blew me away at a live show about a decade ago. And then I realized the very tall lead singer looked familiar – hey, that guy was a teaching assistant in my radio production class back at University.

I fell in love with the band, and, as you do, I took every chance I could to see its shows. I've seen The Wooden Sky live a whole lot and every time, I'm blown away by how dynamic this band is live. On one side the band can be explosive, fiery and huge — and then, on a dime, it can be tender, beautiful and magnetically quiet. You can hear both sides of that energy reflected in the studio recording of its latest album, Swimming in Strange Waters.

But first: Do you take requests? I asked The Wooden Sky's members if they'd start off with one of my favorite songs of theirs from the band's 2009 album, If I Don't Come Home, You'll Know I'm Gone, called "Oslo." Hear it all in the player above, and watch the live performance of "Oslo" below.