Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve received a slew of great new songs and videos in our inbox. We thought we’d share a few of our favorites with you here for #NewMusicFriday.
Donovan Woods, “Burn That Bridge”
We here at Team GDW have been huge fans of Donovan’s for ages, and have been thrilled to hear him live in support of Alan Doyle and as part of the “Writes of Spring” tour last year (along with Hawksley Workman, Amelia Curran, and Tim Baker). His music has always been deep, thoughtful, and occasionally melancholy – with “Burn That Bridge,” it feels like he’s stepping onto new and even deeper lyrical territory.
“‘Burn That Bridge’ to me always felt like a song about a same-sex friendship slowly turning into love,” says Woods. “It’s something about the gruffness, or forthrightness in the lyric maybe. I wanted to make sure the video reflected a vision of love where two people who were already quite comfortable around one another, are wrangling with their newly discovered emotions. And I wanted there to be dancing. That’s what the song is about to me. New, unexpected love. Ryley Burghall took the idea and ran with it fantastically.”
Jeremy Dutcher, “Mehcinut”
We first heard Jeremy Dutcher’s incredible voice last summer at the Sawdust City Music Festival. His unique and entrancing blend of classical vocal training with his Wolastoq First Nation roots is amazing, and we’ve been eagerly anticipating word of his new album since then. Jeremy’s fourthcoming release, “Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa,” is part composition, part musical ethnography, part linguistic reclamation. The melodies come from the oldest known field recordings of the indigenous peoples along the St. John (Wolatstoq) river basin, and are arranged for voice, piano and string quartet.
Here is a taste of his fabulous music:
Visit Jeremy Dutcher’s website.
Kutch, “Collectable”
Friends for years, it was a decade ago that Colin Kutchyera along with his producer, co-composer and best friend, JUNO nominee and multi-platinum artist La+ch were they themselves one in the same. Fast forward to today and the pair are more often than not separated by the season of life; Kutchyera is Thunder Bay-based and works 9 to 5 as an analyst at a university while completing his masters and being a dad, while La+ch lives the life of a round-the-clock musician, up until after dawn in Toronto when he’s not producing other acts or touring North America as a member of Coleman Hell.
“Collectable” looks at the idea of the “perfect” relationships: Wanting a relationship that makes other people say, “Wow, I want that.” Most relationships probably start out feeling that way, but as time goes on, the shine wears, people do and say dumb things, and things get tough. Does the fact that it’s not perfect, shiny and new anymore mean that the relationship has lost its value and becomes a worthless trinket that we throw away? The very nature of a relationship prevents us from sheltering them to put in displays and laud over others. A true relationship needs to be used and abused in order to become something people truly will see and envy: their values don’t appreciate when they sit on a shelf.
Suuns, “Make It Real”
Montréal-based Suuns recently announced their new album, “Felt,” to be released 2 March, and they’ve now released the video for “Make It Real” from that forthcoming project.
“Here, we’re all playing in ways that are counter-intuitive for us as a band, organic drums, major keys, but as long as it works, we’ll take it,” says drummer Liam O’Neill. “It used to have a chorus too, but we thought it would be more interesting to have this song be almost entirely linear – an asymmetrical progression that grows upwards and then repeats. The infinity feeling.”
Photo credits: Danielle Holbert (Donovan Woods), Matt Barnes (Jeremy Dutcher)
