With his thick grey beard and ubiquitous wide-brimmed hat, Harry Lee Follon looks like a man transplanted from a previous century. But that timeless image is the ideal reflection of his music — pure, honest songs that are as emotionally resonant in 2024 as they would have been in 1924. On his new EP Uncle’s Lament, out June 21, Follon bares his soul on five songs, accompanied by pedal steel guitarist Chris Hierlihy and fiddler Ally Corbett, a marked change from his prior work with his band Uncle Harry & the Kickstands. “In 2021, I lost my mom, and there’s no denying she is all over these tunes,” Follon says. “My mother loved music, and she will always be a major influence on me — and my music. These songs are all about love and loss.” While that’s certainly true of the EP’s first single Won’t Say Goodbye, it’s still hard not to be uplifted by Follon’s vocal performances and his natural ease at crafting memorable melodies. The overall feeling while listening to Uncle’s Lament is something close to sitting in a front parlour enjoying good friends playing music together.
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With guests Bob Sumner and Alanna Gurr
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Bob Sumner believes that music is made to evolve. On latest work, Some Place to Rest Easy, you’ll hear countrypolitan strings alongside ambient sensibilities; tasteful synth tracks followed seamlessly by numbers with dobro and steel guitar. It’s an album t hat takes as much inspiration from the audio production of Randy Travis as it does the lyrical soul of Big Thief’s Adrienne Lenker — a melding of eras, sounds, concepts, and stylings that’s informed by the past, but never bound by it. If an imaginary space exists somewhere between Austin,Bakersfield, and his hometown of Vancouver, Bob Sumner found it with his sophomore record, Some Place To Rest Easy. Sumner’s refusal to copy and paste from the greats of the past informs his every musical step. “All of my heroes, all the people that did it so well — whether it be George Jones or Willie, Waylon, whoever—they weren’t these museum pieces,” he explains. “They were always creating something new, something different. ”This approach to taking old tried-and-true recipes and moving forward with them paid dividends with Sumner’s debut record Wasted Love Songs. “First-class Americana,” said No Depression. “Pure gold,” opined the Georgia Straight. “Has the heft and heart of an instant classic,” declared Broadway World. Audiences acrossN orth America agreed when Sumner lit out and provided opening duties for the likes of Colter Wall, Willie Watson, Kelsey Waldon, Corb Lund, and J.P. Harris. In Texas, while on a support tour he was invited onstage by new friend and admirer Hayes Carll, and at a showcase in Nashville, Sumner planted his flag at the world-famous Bluebird Cafe — fulfilling a lifelong dream in the process. Of Some Place To Rest Easy, friend and labelmate Jeffrey Martin states, “Bob Sumner writes a hell of a song and this album is a love letter to a country sound we don’t hear anymore. Lots of people are going to feel like someone out there understands them when they hear this record. Lots of couples will slow dance in the kitchen. Singles will slow dancewith their dogs. Dudes will get teary in the truck on the way home from work”. Some Place To Rest Easy was released September 6 on The North Country Collective (Canada) and Fluff & Gravy Records (worldwide).
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A graceful storyteller and a mesmerizing performer, Alanna Gurr is a bold and unique voice in the world of contemporary Canadian songwriting. With work that presents stories of personal growth, paired with the desire to experience life and love in their fullest and most honest forms, Gurr’s thoughtful and introspective lyrics pull you in over warm, lush tones.