As the looming summer season knocks on our doors, we’re welcoming its arrival with a selection of tracks just perfect for helping your preparations for trips to the beach, the mountains, or better yet, music festivals. For those of you looking for some popular music jams, we have a pair to tunes from the eastern provinces of Ontario and Quebec. If country music is more your ‘thang,’ well, we have two of those for you from the western provinces of Alberta and British Columbia. So go ahead, fix your mojito (or mocktail), and spend a few minutes here with us today enjoying our Summer Samplers.
Hannah Georgas, “Better Somehow”
Announcing a new album scheduled for release this August (her first since 2020), our summer fever is off to a great start thanks to Toronto-based singer-songwriter Hannah Georgas, who shares this latest single to promote her current music project. “I’m trying to be more honest with my feelings and be more comfortable communicating them. I think this track is quite vulnerable in that respect,” Hannah offers. “It’s about being less self-critical and accepting the side of me that’s weird, insecure and has faults. I’ve been through many situations where someone has hurt my feelings by saying something offensive and I end up not saying anything about it and feeling resentful.” With her trademark blending of synth beats with pop sensibilities – and building quickly into a perfect anthem for the summer – Hannah takes time to explore the tension between what we think and what we present to the world around us. “The song is ultimately about how much better I think we’d all be if we just communicated exactly what we were feeling or what we were going through,” she adds. “I don’t want to hold on to negative thoughts and let them eat away at me. This song is about wanting to be more open.”
Patrick Krief, “Eloise”
We’re keeping the summer vibes going here with this latest tune from veteran Montreal, QC artist Patrick Krief (The Dears, Black Diamond Bay). Releasing his latest four-track EP “Eloise” earlier this month, this self-reflective title track pairs beautifully some modern-day Andy Shauf indie-pop traits with some vintage yacht rock era Chicago instrumentation and pace. For Krief, “Eloise” is about meeting someone at the wrong time, and looking back years later wondering what might have been. “I was hoping to talk to you about it / As I held your hand at Tokyo garden / We were lost in Japan / Now I’m going home.” These lyrics feel like a letter to a long lost love, asking when they may meet again; one partly inspired by his own parents’ love story. “My father followed my mother from Morocco to several other countries as her family moved from place to place in search of a better life,” Patrick recalls. “They found a life together in Montreal in the early 60s. I imagined what it might have been like had my father lacked such persistence. And in that character, I imagined the longing he might feel for the rest of his life.” The accompanying music video, shot by Evangelos Desborough in Montreal’s Chinatown, features Patrick’s wife, Julie Krief, as the titular character at the heart of this song.
Aline Deanna, “Over The Edge”
Extra smiles are found here at Team GDW when an unfamiliar artist lands on our radar, and even more so when the new music being shared just so happens to be THIS GOOD. Originally from Nelson, BC, but currently calling Vancouver home, Aline Deanna is a country-roots artist who some may recall collaborated with Tenise Marie and Anna Katarina to cover the Kacey Musgraves hit “Slow Burn” back around the first anniversary of the pandemic. With the announcement of an upcoming solo album, Aline’s single is the first taste of new music, and speaks to the collective uncertainty we feel when faced with our inner critic and challenge to find our own perspective, unaffected by outside forces. Influenced by the likes of Emmylou Harris and Gillian Welch, the spirit of old country and a touch of bluegrass can be found here – from Aline’s soft vocals to the stunning instrumentation. And following the polarization of her community during the pandemic, Aline attempts to share her own outlook. “It’s a matter of perspective; either we can let the fact that we’re all just a small blip in the blink of an eye stress us out or we can be freed by this notion,” she offers. “I’m just a wrinkle in time, two feet and a worried mind.”
JJ Shiplett, “Already There”
Discovering the music of Calgary, AB country rocker JJ Shiplett during the pandemic – when social distancing and mandatory work-from-home orders meant extra radio listening opportunities – proved to be one of the highlights from an otherwise dark era. We were naturally excited to hear of this latest single just after finalizing our last installment of Snappy Singles, so quickly circled this one as a guaranteed lock for inclusion this time around. Blending solid songwriting and instrumentation, and delivering the goods with an alluring, distinct vocal rasp, JJ’s music paints vivid pictures in your imagination with each and every song – and a pair of his albums quickly found their way to GDW HQ. “Already There” paints a scene, once more, this time of a winding road, of running down a dream, and following it. “This song came to me when I was at one of my favourite spots to write – a ranch along the banks of the Red Deer River. The verses felt like they always existed, but I just needed to reach out and grab them,” JJ shares. “No matter how hard we try, you’ve got to adapt, you’ve got to grow, you’ve got to evolve. But in the end, you’ve just gotta ride the wave because you never really know where you’re gonna go until you’re already there.”
The British guy that crossed the ocean and crash landed in central Pennsylvania (to quote Greg Keelor, “And I wonder what am I doing here?”). As the youngest of four siblings, exposure to music from a very early age nurtured my passion and appreciation for many musical genres. Continuing to discover some amazingly diverse and talented musicians based in Canada, I gravitate to live music experiences and remain devoted to spreading the word about such a vibrant music scene.
