Joel Plaskett plays this Saturday. Not Joel Plastic

Joel Plaskett says the Sault shouldn't take it personally that he hasn't performed here since 2005.

He has definitely enjoyed the the city the few times he has visited.

The last time Plaskett made a stop in the Sault touring behind his solo release La De Da, he spent six weeks traveling one-way across the country.

Something he really hasn't done since.

But thanks to the hard working crew at the Algoma Fall Festival, Plaskett finally returns, this time with his band The Emergency, to perform at the Great Northern Hotel and Conference Centre on Saturday, October 18.

With three Juno nominations, a mitt-load of East Coast Music Awards (six in 2008 alone), taking first place in the Billboard World Song Contest Pop Category, winning the Great American Song Contest, recently touring the U.S. with the Tragically Hip, and a few endorsements from Perez Hilton himself, It's amazing that Joel Plaskett is not a household name.

"It's because I've got such a weird name, that's why," Plaskett joked during a recent phone interview. "I should start going by Joel Plastic."

He went on to explain that breaking into new markets like the U.S. is difficult and time consuming, extremely costly and often fruitless.

"I'm pretty practical when it comes to not exhausting myself by going down an avenue that's not going to pay dividends," he said.

Breaking onto mainstream radio is something he's just not interested in doing, and the line up of independent bands waiting to hit the big time on College radio is overwhelming.

But all of this is OK with him.

While most acts of his calibre would opt to move from their smallish hometowns to major centres like Montreal or Toronto in order to grab a few more rays of limelight, Plaskett is more than content to stay put in Halifax and continue doing what he's doing.

"In my mind, Halifax is a major city," he said with a chuckle. "I know it's not, but it is in the sense that I have access to everything that I need to create what I do. There are people here that are interested. There's fantastic musicians to be inspired by. It's easy to get around in, there's recording studios to make records in, and there's a very long-standing tradition of live music in clubs. You can find live music here seven days a week."

Creatively, remaining grounded in Halifax has been the right thing to do.

His music is an indelible and edgy brand of pop folk rock.

Lyrically vivid, each song is a different, and yet somehow familiar, narrative that immediately engages the listener as he recounts the people, places and events that have shaped his craft.

"It all comes from a real place," Plaskett admitted. "I've just stitched it together in a fictional way, just to keep a certain amount of distance so I don't feel weird singing it. You don't want it to be entirely autobiographical because then it can become too uncomfortable. You have to save a part of yourself now and then."

In addition to making his own brilliant music, he has produced the last two records for Polaris Music Prize 2008 short listers, Two Hours Traffic.

"For me, it's been great to sit in the creative chair and figure out how to make someone else's stuff sound better -- to achieve what their vision is and also even heighten it, maximize it," he said of being a producer. "To do that to somebody else's music means you have to turn that mirror on yourself and actually work a little bit harder. I learned a lot from Gordie Johnson who produced the last Emergency record. I don't wanna broaden what I do, but at the same time I think I've developed a few things that I'm good at so I'll use that knowledge to help somebody else. Hopefully it'll expand my own abilities when I make my own record."

Plaskett is currently in the studio working on a new solo record due out in early 2009.

Tickets for this Saturday's Joel Plaskett Emergency performance are $30 and may be purchased at the Algoma Fall Festival office (680 Albert St. E.), the Community Theatre Box Office in the Station Mall, or by calling (705) 945-7299.

Plaskett is scheduled to hit the Great Northern Hotel and Conference Centre ballroom stage at 8 p.m.

Visit Plaskett on Myspace.

Also included on this year's Algoma Fall Festival roster are Emilie-Claire Barlow on October 17th, Bowfire on October 24th and Spirit of the West on October 25th.

For complete Festival details, click here.

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