It’s a melancholic number which at the beginning would not be out of place on a Willie Nelson album but veers in to the interstellar cosmic territory of Sturgeon Simpson.
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Cuff The Duke, photo by Colin Medley
Slowcity.ca Open Mic: Cuff The Duke, Mike Boguski, Rose Cousins, Sierra Ferrell, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, Homeshake, Waash, and Jennifer Castle
It all felt novel and it stirred a desperate desire to soak in every moment of the fleeting spring and summer, as if I might not get the chance again, wanting to remember it and wanting to be remembered in it." - Rose Cousins
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Slowcity.ca Open Mic: Nathaniel Rateliff, David Myles, Chris Caderet, Secret Beach, Shannon and the Clams, Frank Turner, Gravel-Aires, and July Talk
“Sometimes a sad song is just what we need to feel less alone." - David Myles
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Donovan Woods, photo by Briony Douglas
Slowcity.ca Open Mic with Nathaniel Rateliff, Donovan Woods, Debra-Jean Creelman, Soccer Mommy, Louie Short, One True Pairing, Megan Nash, and Suzie Ungerleider,
By Will McGuirk
“‘Golden Arches’ is a song of escape and a song of possibility. Built from a load of software loops during hot days spent inside, dreaming of the drizzling open road.” - One True Pairing
“It’s about sitting with grief and loss. Feeling all of the heavy and uncomfortable feelings. And wanting to hear nothing but your own heartbeat.” - Megan Nash
Yola, photo by Joseph Ross Smith
Slowcity.ca Open Mic with Yola, Nathaniel Rateliff, Tony Joe White, Billy F Gibbons, Lucas Nelson, and JEEN
By Will McGuirk
“This song is about a celebration of being awake from the nightmare supremacist paradigm. Truly alive, awake and eyes finally wide open and trained on your path to self-actualisation. You are thinking freely and working on undoing the mental programming that has made you live in fear. It is about standing for ourselves throughout our lives and real change coming when we challenge our thinking.” - Yola
“I wrote "Better Drugs" eight months after watching the world burn, with everything so exposed and gross. Like we had all lost too many pieces of ourselves to put back together or something...I wondered how fundamental it was, like how broken are we, you know?” - JEEN
Slowcity.ca Open Mic with Laila Biali, Sarah Neufeld, Nathaniel Rateliff, Daysormay, Charles Ellsworth, Mark Nyvlt, Black River Delta, Frànçois & The Atlas Mountains, Buscabulla, and Jack Kays,
By Will McGuirk
“Just before our love got lost you said,
I am as constant as a northern star
And I said, "Constantly in the darkness,
Where's that at?
If you want me I'll be in the bar."
Its the broadness of Joni Mitchell, her artistic scope, the length and breadth of her, truly authentic, really a badass, impossible to capture, an artist as an environment. If there was one to have spent some moments with, oh man!!, but we have the music, and we can spend more than moments with it, we can live inside of it, alongside of Joni.
“My first experience hearing Joni Mitchell's music was when I was still a music student at Humber College. Hejira and Mingus were the obvious starting point for a Jazz novice as equally interested in the musicians accompanying Joni as in Joni herself. But then along came Blue. That was the one, the album that triggered a lifelong fascination with Joni and her songwriting. She made my heart ache with every feeling, love and loss in the same breath. No song captures that more for me than A Case of You. I think it's the ultimate Valentine's song because it can reach you no matter where you're at – whether you're in love, longing for it, or mourning it.” - Laila Biali
“This song is about being obsessed with someone. Spinning round and round, your mind goes in circles and you never change your position. The fantasy remains a distant galaxy. Love is a mental projection. Somehow, this vivid tune resonates with our recent lockdown lifestyle. On loop.” - Frànçois Marry
Lynne Hanson, photo by Jen Squire
Slowcity.ca Open Mic with Lynne Hanson, Logan Ledger, Nathaniel Rateliff, Le Couleur, Brielle Ansems, Lower Dens, Alexandra Lost and Humans
By Will McGuirk
Post-Bone Moon, heard the crow, hear the crow sap will flow, evenings are lighter, the worst is yet to come but it too shall pass. Lets strive to rise above it all.
"I wanted to pay tribute to this mythical plane Concorde, by bringing it as a love break-up. . . These are the last moments of the plane, which remembers its memories, its image, its exploits,” - Laurence Giroux-Do
“It's like Cowboy Krautrock.” - Jana Hunter
“We liked the idea of creating a new story from an old one, and of amplifying a film's existing emotional palette by juxtaposing handpicked images with contemporary sounds.” - Alexandra Lost
Frazey Ford, photo by Alana Paterson
Slowcity.ca Open Mic - Frazey Ford, Dana Gavanski, Ben Lee, Paul Kelly, Bombay Bicycle Club, Nathaniel Rateliff, and Richard Dawson
By Will McGuirk
Slow for a reason, slow for the season, but planning, gathering, building, building, building - isn’t that what a snow fort is for? And did you notice as you stood on the turrets the sun shone longer.
“There’s certain songs that just appear and there’s no art to it. To me those songs have some kind of spiritual quality—sometimes I feel like they’re these different voices that you’re able to channel. There really was something magical about the improvisational aspect and how that shaped the album, and such a joy in the experience of really reveling in what we were all creating together.” - Frazey Ford
"a conversation with the gods of creativity, an attestation to the daily struggle to be inspired and how not to lose direction." - Dana Gavanski
“I think I always want to see hope in the darkness, and I like to try to share that,” - Nathaniel Rateliff
Donovan Woods, photo by Justin Broadbent
Slowcity.ca Open Mic -post Moonshine edition with Donovan Woods, Nathaniel Rateliff, Marcus King, Jenn Grant, The Blue Stones, Hot Chip, Lexxicon, HEALTH with Xiu Xiu
By Will McGuirk
In a world in which the centre will not hold, in a world where division is norm, fragments of shattered orders realign along old ideas on a global scale, so too the artists realign themselves. Look for them. Stand with them. Connect with them.
“We can always be in touch. So heartache must be getting harder.” - Donovan Woods
“The Party is a story about a woman, filled with anticipation in those moments while getting ready for the party, which sometimes feels like the best part,” says Grant. “It’s about the evening to come, of dancing and love and loneliness and gathering. And something that resonates with this time of year, under all the sparkling lights.”