Canadian icon Buffy Sainte-Marie will release a new album titled Medicine Songs next month. It's due out on November 10 via True North Records.
The new LP marks the follow-up to Sainte-Marie's Polaris Music Prize-winning 2015 record Power in the Blood.
The singer-songwriter and activist has shared an in-depth message about her latest material. It reads:
This is a collection of front line songs about unity and resistance — some brand new and some classics — and I want to put them to work. These are songs I've been writing for over fifty years, and what troubles people today are still the same damn issues from 30-40-50 years ago: war, oppression, inequity, violence, rankism of all kinds, the pecking order, bullying, racketeering and systemic greed. Some of these songs come from the other side of that: positivity, common sense, romance, equity and enthusiasm for life.
I've found that a song can be more effective than a 400-page textbook. It's immediate and replicable, portable and efficient, easy to understand — and sometimes you can dance to it. Effective songs are shared, person-to-person, by artists and friends, as opposed to news stories that are marketed by the fellas who may own the town, the media, the company store and the mine. I hope you use these songs, share them, and that they inspire change and your own voice.
It might seem strange that along with the new ones, I re-recorded and updated some of these songs from the past using current technologies and new instrumentations — giving a new life to them from today's perspective. The thing is, some of these songs were too controversial for radio play when they first came out, so nobody ever heard them, and now is my chance to offer them to new generations of like-minded people dealing with these same concerns. It's like the play is the same but the actors are new.
I really want this collection of songs to be like medicine, to be of some help or encouragement, to maybe do some good. Songs can motivate you and advance your own ideas, encourage and support collaborations and be part of making change globally and at home. They do that for me and I hope this album can be positive and provide thoughts and remedies that rock your world and inspire new ideas of your own.
The first song that she's unveiled from the new set is the previously shared Tanya Tagaq collaboration "You Got to Run (Spirit of the Wind)." Listen to it below.
Below, you'll also find the complete tracklisting for Medicine Songs (all CD and LP versions of the album will include a download card for the digital bonus tracks), as well as a run of Sainte-Marie's upcoming tour dates.
As previously reported, Sainte-Marie's career will be celebrated in a new biography, due out later this fall.
Medicine Songs:
1. You Got To Run (Spirit of the Wind)
Buffy Sainte-Marie & Tanya Tagaq
2. The War Racket
3. Starwalker
4. My Country 'Tis of Thy People You're Dying
5. America the Beautiful
6. Carry It On
7. Little Wheel Spin and Spin
8. No No Keshagesh
9. Soldier Blue
10. The Priests of the Golden Bull
11. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
12. Universal Soldier
13. Power in the Blood
14. Disinformation *
15. Fallen Angels *
16. Now That The Buffalo's Gone *
17. Generation *
18. Working For The Government *
19. The Big Ones Get Away *
20. The War Racket (Unplugged) *
* digital bonus track
Tour dates:
10/30 Souris, PE – Souris Show Hall
11/01 Summerside, PE – Harbourfront Theatre
11/02 Pictou, NS – deCoste Entertainment Centre
11/03 Antigonish, NS – St. FX University, Schwartz Auditorium *
11/04 Annapolis Royal, NS – King's Theatre
11/05 Wolfville, NS – Acadia University, Convocation Hall
11/07 Wolfville, NS – Acadia University, Convocation Hall *
11/08 Lunenburg, NS – St. John's Anglican Church
11/10 Markham, ON – Flato Markham Theatre
11/12 Brantford, ON – Sanderson Centre for the Performing Arts
11/15 Oakville, ON – The Oakville Centre for the Performing Arts
11/16 Mississauga, ON – Living Arts Centre
11/17 Burlington, ON – The Burlington Performing Arts Centre
11/19 Sherwood Park, AB – Festival Place
* speaking event
The new LP marks the follow-up to Sainte-Marie's Polaris Music Prize-winning 2015 record Power in the Blood.
The singer-songwriter and activist has shared an in-depth message about her latest material. It reads:
This is a collection of front line songs about unity and resistance — some brand new and some classics — and I want to put them to work. These are songs I've been writing for over fifty years, and what troubles people today are still the same damn issues from 30-40-50 years ago: war, oppression, inequity, violence, rankism of all kinds, the pecking order, bullying, racketeering and systemic greed. Some of these songs come from the other side of that: positivity, common sense, romance, equity and enthusiasm for life.
I've found that a song can be more effective than a 400-page textbook. It's immediate and replicable, portable and efficient, easy to understand — and sometimes you can dance to it. Effective songs are shared, person-to-person, by artists and friends, as opposed to news stories that are marketed by the fellas who may own the town, the media, the company store and the mine. I hope you use these songs, share them, and that they inspire change and your own voice.
It might seem strange that along with the new ones, I re-recorded and updated some of these songs from the past using current technologies and new instrumentations — giving a new life to them from today's perspective. The thing is, some of these songs were too controversial for radio play when they first came out, so nobody ever heard them, and now is my chance to offer them to new generations of like-minded people dealing with these same concerns. It's like the play is the same but the actors are new.
I really want this collection of songs to be like medicine, to be of some help or encouragement, to maybe do some good. Songs can motivate you and advance your own ideas, encourage and support collaborations and be part of making change globally and at home. They do that for me and I hope this album can be positive and provide thoughts and remedies that rock your world and inspire new ideas of your own.
The first song that she's unveiled from the new set is the previously shared Tanya Tagaq collaboration "You Got to Run (Spirit of the Wind)." Listen to it below.
Below, you'll also find the complete tracklisting for Medicine Songs (all CD and LP versions of the album will include a download card for the digital bonus tracks), as well as a run of Sainte-Marie's upcoming tour dates.
As previously reported, Sainte-Marie's career will be celebrated in a new biography, due out later this fall.
Medicine Songs:
1. You Got To Run (Spirit of the Wind)
Buffy Sainte-Marie & Tanya Tagaq
2. The War Racket
3. Starwalker
4. My Country 'Tis of Thy People You're Dying
5. America the Beautiful
6. Carry It On
7. Little Wheel Spin and Spin
8. No No Keshagesh
9. Soldier Blue
10. The Priests of the Golden Bull
11. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
12. Universal Soldier
13. Power in the Blood
14. Disinformation *
15. Fallen Angels *
16. Now That The Buffalo's Gone *
17. Generation *
18. Working For The Government *
19. The Big Ones Get Away *
20. The War Racket (Unplugged) *
* digital bonus track
Tour dates:
10/30 Souris, PE – Souris Show Hall
11/01 Summerside, PE – Harbourfront Theatre
11/02 Pictou, NS – deCoste Entertainment Centre
11/03 Antigonish, NS – St. FX University, Schwartz Auditorium *
11/04 Annapolis Royal, NS – King's Theatre
11/05 Wolfville, NS – Acadia University, Convocation Hall
11/07 Wolfville, NS – Acadia University, Convocation Hall *
11/08 Lunenburg, NS – St. John's Anglican Church
11/10 Markham, ON – Flato Markham Theatre
11/12 Brantford, ON – Sanderson Centre for the Performing Arts
11/15 Oakville, ON – The Oakville Centre for the Performing Arts
11/16 Mississauga, ON – Living Arts Centre
11/17 Burlington, ON – The Burlington Performing Arts Centre
11/19 Sherwood Park, AB – Festival Place
* speaking event
