TORONTO, March, 20, (RTRS): There were double takes aplenty from sports fans attending the recent Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Was that really Canada’s favorite quirky pop-rockers, the Barenaked Ladies, busking on Robson Street? There’s been plenty of upheaval for the band in the past couple of years, but surely things weren’t that bad.
In fact, with new album “All in Good Time’’ due March 23 in Canada and March 30 in the United States, the stunt was an attempt to mirror the band’s late-’80s beginnings, when it first captured attention by playing on the streets of its Toronto hometown.
“It is absolutely a rebirth and reinvention of the band,’’ says Ed Robertson, the band’s lead vocalist since the departure of co-singer/guitarist Steven Page in February 2009. “It was something we’d worked hard at for 20 years — I wasn’t going to let it die away.’’
Page left the group after his 2008 arrest for cocaine possession, just before the act released its kids’ album “Snacktime!’’
Many people saw Page as the band’s linchpin, but Robertson stepped up on the new record, composing and singing nine of the album’s 14 tracks. Multi-instrumentalist Kevin Hearn and bassist Jim Creeggan also write and sing (Tyler Stewart sticks to the drums). The lead single, the ballad “You Run Away,’’ may be a poignant discussion of Page’s departure, but, musically at least, the band doesn’t seem to be missing him.
The Ladies’ erstwhile singer isn’t the only significant figure missing from the scene these days. In July 2009, the band split with Nettwerk Music Group CEO/manager Terry McBride, who helped guide the act to its major US breakthrough with 1998’s 3.6 million-selling “Stunt.’’
The group then signed with Cam 8’s Jordan Feldstein because of what Robertson dubs Feldstein’s “comprehensive vision for the band.’’
 The new album appears on the act’s own Raisin Records imprint, but under a one-album North American deal with EMI Music’s label services unit, the major will provide sales, digital, marketing and other support. It’s the band’s closest relationship with a major since it split from Warner after 2003’s “Everything to Everyone’’ album, which sold 360,000.
Feldstein says the EMI relationship is paying dividends, with Olympics-related appearances on NBC’s “Today’’ and CTV’s “Canada AM.’’ Further US TV appearances, including ABC’s “Live With Regis and Kelly’’ are scheduled around the release date.
The band kicks off its Canadian tour April 6 at the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre in Victoria, British Columbia, with US dates starting May 10 at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium. A digital copy of the album is bundled with each online ticket purchase.
“We’re promoting this album with a lot more concentration than we have in quite a while,’’ Robertson says. “We’re doing it because we’re really excited about the songs we’ve written and it’s fun for us to see people rooting us on.’’
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When Laura Marling first emerged from the UK alt-folk scene, she was a painfully shy, if precociously talented, 17-year-old. But her second album finds her growing in confidence, as a person and a songwriter.
 “I was just a tiny little kid, so I found it quite weird and difficult,’’ says Marling, 20, of the attention that surrounded her 2008 debut, “Alas I Cannot Swim,’’ and its nomination for that year’s Mercury Prize.
The record moved 13,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan, while the Official Charts Co confirms 73,000 UK sales. But Marling’s team expects the follow-up, “I Speak Because I Can’’ — released March 22 on Virgin in the United Kingdom and Europe and April 6 in the States on Astralwerks — to build significantly on that success.
At home, rousing lead single “Devil’s Spoke’’ was B-listed at national top 40 network BBC Radio 1, while her live following has grown to the extent that she sold out London’s 2,800-capacity Royal Festival Hall last August.
 “I Speak Because I Can’’ was helmed by Ryan Adams/Kings of Leon producer Ethan Johns, who brought subtle Americana textures to Marling’s rootsy, live sound. Marling says she chose Johns partly because Adams’ “Heartbreaker’’ was the “first album I fell in love with on my own account,’’ as opposed to being influenced by her father or older sisters.
Nonetheless, that family upbringing in the Berkshire countryside remains part of such songs as the sprawling ballad “Goodbye England (Covered in Snow).’’ “I’ve clung to that landscape as a kind of identity,’’ the London-based Marling says. “I try to go back as often as I can.’’
Her visits home are likely to be less frequent in the coming months as she plans US live dates and promotion in May, after her European/UK tour, which starts April 1 at Berlin Privatclub. Marling is part of a new, close-knit UK folk scene that includes Noah & the Whale and Mumford & Sons, whose multi-instrumentalist Marcus Mumford was also her longtime drummer.
New York-based Astralwerks senior director of marketing Risa Morley believes such associations will help Marling “get recognition and media attention in the US, particularly as Mumford & Sons have built a solid (American) following.’’
Marling describes Mumford & Sons’ recent stateside success as “just phenomenal,’’ although she ruefully concedes Mumford will now likely be too busy to appear on her next album, which she expects to record in June. But one suspects the sense of wonder that infuses her music will prevail.
 “I find something incredibly magical about playing music with people,’’ she says.