Never one to rest on his laurels, rootsy Canadian songwriter Justin Rutledge has announced he's coming back into our lives with a new album. Following his 2014 homage to the Tragically Hip, Daredevil, Rutledge has announced the all-caps EAST, which will arrive this fall via Outside.
UPDATE (8/24, 2:45 p.m. EDT): EAST will arrive on September 23. You can also see some newly announced Canadian dates below.
Apparently, the album title is an appropriate one. According to a press release, the title signifies "not only his personal transition in moving away from the only city he's ever lived, but also, recording in the east, his first time making an album outside of Toronto."
In 2015, Rutledge moved from Toronto to the eastern shores of Lake Ontario in Prince Edward County. As you might expect, the move had a big impact on the songwriter.
"Toronto is where I was born, but for some reason it became an increasingly foreign place to me. I knew I had to leave the city," Rutledge said in a statement.
As such, his seventh studio album was influenced by his new surrounding, with the full-length recorded even further east in Nova Scotia. It was there that he crafted EAST with producer and multi-instrumentalist Daniel Ledwell at his studio in Lake Echo, NS.
"I wanted to create an album in which a different geography served as the backdrop," Rutledge said. "I wanted to record on the east coast, use musicians from the East Coast, even master the album on the East Coast. Thinking of a title for the album was easy."
While EAST has yet to secure a firm release date, you can listen to the new song "The Great Ascension" below, where you'll also find the album's tracklist.
EAST:
1. Unsettled
2. The Great Ascension
3. North Wind
4. Blue Jeans
5. Heaven Help Us
6. Almost Gone
7. No One Knows
8. The Old Oak
9. Hey Little Boy
10. Queen Street Lost
Tour dates:
10/13 Kingston, ON - The Mansion**
10/14 Picton, ON - The Hayloft Dancehall**
10/15 Peterborough, ON - The Red Dog Tavern**
10/16 Oshawa, ON - Moustache Club**
10/20 Hamilton, ON - Mills Hardware**
10/21 St. Catharines, ON - NAC Rooftop**
10/22 Toronto, ON - The Great Hall**
10/26 Waterloo, ON - Starlight##
10/27 London, ON - Aeolian Hall##
10/28 Windsor, ON - Phog Lounge##
10/29 Sarnia, ON - Paddy Flaherty's##
** with special guest Joshua Hyslop
## with special guest Jonathan Roy
UPDATE (8/24, 2:45 p.m. EDT): EAST will arrive on September 23. You can also see some newly announced Canadian dates below.
Apparently, the album title is an appropriate one. According to a press release, the title signifies "not only his personal transition in moving away from the only city he's ever lived, but also, recording in the east, his first time making an album outside of Toronto."
In 2015, Rutledge moved from Toronto to the eastern shores of Lake Ontario in Prince Edward County. As you might expect, the move had a big impact on the songwriter.
"Toronto is where I was born, but for some reason it became an increasingly foreign place to me. I knew I had to leave the city," Rutledge said in a statement.
As such, his seventh studio album was influenced by his new surrounding, with the full-length recorded even further east in Nova Scotia. It was there that he crafted EAST with producer and multi-instrumentalist Daniel Ledwell at his studio in Lake Echo, NS.
"I wanted to create an album in which a different geography served as the backdrop," Rutledge said. "I wanted to record on the east coast, use musicians from the East Coast, even master the album on the East Coast. Thinking of a title for the album was easy."
While EAST has yet to secure a firm release date, you can listen to the new song "The Great Ascension" below, where you'll also find the album's tracklist.
EAST:
1. Unsettled
2. The Great Ascension
3. North Wind
4. Blue Jeans
5. Heaven Help Us
6. Almost Gone
7. No One Knows
8. The Old Oak
9. Hey Little Boy
10. Queen Street Lost
Tour dates:
10/13 Kingston, ON - The Mansion**
10/14 Picton, ON - The Hayloft Dancehall**
10/15 Peterborough, ON - The Red Dog Tavern**
10/16 Oshawa, ON - Moustache Club**
10/20 Hamilton, ON - Mills Hardware**
10/21 St. Catharines, ON - NAC Rooftop**
10/22 Toronto, ON - The Great Hall**
10/26 Waterloo, ON - Starlight##
10/27 London, ON - Aeolian Hall##
10/28 Windsor, ON - Phog Lounge##
10/29 Sarnia, ON - Paddy Flaherty's##
** with special guest Joshua Hyslop
## with special guest Jonathan Roy