RGM presents The Maple Leaf Roundup #23
Welcome back to The Maple Leaf, RGM’s roundup of the freshest and finest tunage from Canada. By way of atoning for a longer absence than usual, we’re offering you a special double-helping of new music across the genres. Everyone is welcome here at RGM and we like to think we can spot a keeper, however it’s dressed. We hope you enjoy what you hear and that you’re inspired to take a deeper dive into some of this edition’s featured artists.
We kick off with the sunshine country of the River Town Saints and a song that was recorded last year but feels particularly relevant to the here and now, as we tentatively begin to rediscover the old ways. ‘Long Time Coming’ celebrates the simple joy of getting together with your mates for a bit of a lark about, as illustrated in the song’s accompanying video. We think you’ll agree it doesn’t get much catchier than this and never has the Ottawa Valley sounded quite so much like, well, Nashville.
Let’s head northeast to St John’s now, where singer-songwriter Kelly McMichael is gearing up to release her debut record ‘Waves’ on 20th May. We’ve been very much enjoying her latest single ‘Stepping Stone’ which has a hazy, vintage chic, bringing to mind bands like The Pierces and First Aid Kit. Get yourselves over to Bandcamp, where a couple more tracks from the record are available, including the wonderful ‘Montreal’.
Press photo by Esther Spiegelman
And speaking of Montreal, that’s where you’ll find James Parm, who has recently released The Art Of Waiting, an existential seven-song attack on the tyranny of time in the modern age. Current single ‘Doing Time’ and bold album opener ‘You Just Wait’ illustrate Parm’s ability to wrong-foot the listener with lavish musical flourishes and reveal his propensity for production kitchen-sinkery too. Stop all the clocks while you have a listen.
Photo By Sheena Zilinski
Over in Edmonton, we find Juno award-winning Métis singer-songwriter Celeigh Cardinal and her fabulously funky cover of The Tragically Hip’s ‘Ahead by a Century’. Cardinal uses the track’s video as an opportunity to bring together her friends, family and community (if only on a screen) while at the same time showing off her incredible band. If this doesn’t paste a mile-wide smile on your face, then you’re officially past help.
We turn next to Montreal-born Milan André, who has variously made a life in London, Toronto and Bratislava. Working with UK producer Kristofer Harris, he is about to release a new record, the follow-up to his self-produced 2019 debut. Current single ‘500 Days’ is a thing of delicate beauty, charmingly paired with a stuttering, hand-painted 1948 film by Gordon Webber. Andre’s gentle voice is set against metronomic, fingerpicked guitar and subtle atmospherics; the effect is peaceful and mesmerizing. We want to hear more.
Photo Credit: Brandan Reid
And while we’re in a quiet gear, we have to tell you about Kellie Loder, whose latest single ‘So High’ apparently had a previous life as an upbeat rock track. Now, in its new skin as a piano-led ballad, it is achingly sublime. To say that Loder’s vocal fuses a Sadé smoothness with a Sarah McLachlan quiver might point you in the right direction but it certainly wouldn’t be the whole picture. If - like us - you like what you hear, check out the last album, Benefit of The Doubt, and join us in looking forward to the next.
For something rather more raucous, look no further than Hamilton popsters Arkells, who have teamed up with eclectic American rapper K.Flay for their latest single ‘You Can Get It’, which is bursting with trolleyfuls of groove and not a small quantity of f-bombs. Distorted beats collide with lo-fi piano in this ridiculously infectious anthem which is accompanied by a suitably buckets-of-fun video. We like, lots.
We stay in Ontario to catch up with Toronto indie rockers Phantom Atlantic who’ve just released the arresting new single ‘Start From Nothing’. It’s all charging guitars, blistering drums and muscular vocals but, crucially, there’s light and shade in the track which is about having the strength to start again when all is lost. The song follows the previous single ‘No Way to Live’ and is taken from the band’s upcoming EP, Your View of a Forner Me, which is set for a Summer 2021 release.
PROMO PHOTO BY STEPHEN DROVER
Fellow Torontonian Suzie Ungerleider (who has made nine albums under the name Oh Susanna) has released the sleepy but super-comforting ‘Baby Blues’, the first single taken from her upcoming album, My Name Is Suzie Ungerleider, due in August. Impeccably produced by the ever-reliable Jim Bryson, the song is languid and yearnsome, with Ungerleider’s vocal bearing flashes of the mighty Emmylou Harris and Lucinda Williams. Special mention must go to Christine Fellows, who created the charming stop-motion collage that goes with the song.
Meanwhile, back in Ottawa, Jessica Pearson and the East Wind have recently released ‘Broken By You’, a beautiful nugget of earthy, acoustic folk about calling time on a bad situation. Pearson’s plainspoken vocal is complemented perfectly by Maddy O’Regan’s honey-warm fiddle, and it’s no wonder that JPEW have proved to be live favourites over here in the UK and Ireland since forming in 2017. The track is taken from the debut full-length record, On The Line.
Photoshoot via FaceTime by Isy Townsend
We couldn’t leave you, dear reader without mentioning the latest song from Edmonton quintet Whale and the Wolf. The second single from their EP Envy (out May 21st), ‘Veins’ is an immense chunk of thoroughly modern rock. But step away from your pigeonholes, people, the band don’t shrink from sprinkling funk, disco and pop into the darkness, just to keep you on your toes. With a gazillion Spotify streams and a string of charting singles in Canada, we think it’s high time these self-confessed purveyors of ‘hard pop’ went global. Just remember, you heard ‘em here first...
This time out we’ve also added a new feature with the debut of the Maple Leaf playlist for those of you who Spotify.
Here you can check out all the featured music in this edition of the Maple Leaf in one album sized chunk.
So, there's an album's worth of Canadian magic, on us. Thank you for being along for the ride. We hope you’ve enjoyed the tunes and that you’ll join us for the next instalment of The Maple Leaf...
The Maple Leaf is a Rich Barnard production for Red Guitar Music.
And we’re back! “From whence?” I hear you cry, in your florid way. Back from Canada, of course. We swam all the way, on our backs, our music-loving arms filled with a freshly picked bunch of hot new songs, gifted to us from our creative compadres ‘cross the waves. Imagine that. And we did it all for you.