Mr. Pine

There’s something about Winnipeg that breeds incredible songwriting and musicianship. Should we thank the relentless winters? The claustrophobic openness of the never-ending canola fields? Either way, Mr. Pine’s latest album, Rewilding, features those yawning, free-falling songs about longing, misery and self-discovery we love to curl up with on a cold night. If you’re drinking a cup of hot chocolate and reading a Dickens novel, your theme song would be "Streets Of York,” its sauntering pace and happy-go-lucky undertones clicking away like horses’ hooves. Album opener "Ace Of Cups 1” is best enjoyed with a stiff glass of whiskey; the howling and echoing vocals gently sweep across your soul in sync with the flushed heat that trickles to your finger tips. There’s a lot of potential for Mr. Pine — special thanks to their progressive take on some of their folk tracks — and so there’s no doubt this Winnipeg band will do great things for the melancholic alt-country genre in the future.