JACOB BRODOVSKY’S NEW ALBUM, TELL THE KIDS WE TRIED, DUE OUT JULY 10, 2026
WATCH / SHARE “PAST MISTAKES” HERE
BUY / STREAM “PAST MISTAKES” HERE
PRE-SAVE TELL THE KIDS WE TRIED HERE
PERFORMANCE DATES BEGIN MARCH 19 - FULL DATES LISTED BELOW
PERFORMING AT WINNIPEG FOLK FESTIVAL
“Jacob Brodovsky spins mundane observations with imaginative insights, using lyrical richness and splashes of humour to paint in pensive musings and quirky, comforting colour” — Exclaim!
Photo Credit : Matt Horseman // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES
In some cases, songwriters discover their writing is premonition only after living through the experiences their past-self penned. In 2025, Jacob Brodovsky lived through a loss of community that, at the time, he didn’t realize he’d foretold while writing his upcoming sophomore LP, Tell The Kids We Tried.
The award-winning indie-folk songwriter, based in Treaty 1 Territory, began recording with a group of trusted friends and heroes. He brought a batch of songs to producers Gavin Gardiner and Champagne James Robinson (MOONRIIVR), only to quickly discard many of them in favour of brand new songs stemming from a ‘Song Every Week’ songwriting challenge that the Winnipeg music community takes part in every Winter.
Without time to edit or really even think about them, these eleven songs revealed themselves to be more vulnerable and personal than previous work. With the help of John Mark Baron (Begonia, William Prince), Jason Tait (The Weakerthans, Bahamas), Keiran Placetka (Leith Ross, William Prince, Bros. Landreth), Charlotte Cornfield, Dominique Adams (Leith Ross, Madeleine Roger), and Taylor Jackson, they recorded live to an 8-track tape machine, quickly capturing the true expression of each song and being forced to commit to creative decisions in the moment.
Today, Brodovsky is sharing the album’s first single and opening track, “Past Mistakes”, which also arrives with a video directed by Christine Fellows. The song acts as an “introduction to the world of the record both sonically, but also thematically,” he says. “If ‘Kids’ is the thesis statement for this album, ‘Past Mistakes’ is a table of contents. Almost like an overture.”
“Past Mistakes” is a song Brodovsky started writing during the pandemic in late 2021 “as a simple writing exercise to try and incorporate as many metaphors into a song as possible,” he explains. “Of course what started as a benign stream of consciousness exercise turned quite quickly into a song about feeling hopeless and mundane. I remember reflecting on how in pop culture and social media we kept commenting on how ‘2020 was the worst year ever’ but also how things never really seemed to feel like they were getting better.
“I tried to channel that feeling of hopelessness into a fictional character on this song. Someone who, like so many of us, found themselves largely alone for a very long time during the pandemic and spent a lot of time recounting all the ways they had misstepped in the past. We all hold our lists of past mistakes pretty close. Or at least I do.
“This was one of the first songs we recorded for the record, and to me recording this song was really the first time I finally saw the ‘world’ of the record being put together. I remember sitting back in the studio getting a little teary eyed as I was realizing what this record was becoming. I felt so incredibly lucky (and frankly unworthy) to have all of these incredible musicians I had looked up to for so long in the same room with me.”
WATCH / SHARE “PAST MISTAKES” HERE
BUY / STREAM “PAST MISTAKES” HERE
MORE ABOUT JACOB BRODOVSKY + TELL THE KIDS WE TRIED
After spending the vast majority of his life in the Jewish Summer Camp world, including becoming Co-Executive Director with his wife of the popular local community camp they met at over 25 years ago, political tensions forced him to walk away from both what he thought was his life’s work, and the community he grew up in just days after the birth of their second son. Many tracks like “Kids”, “Beneath It All”, “It’s Alright”, “Lack Thereof”, and “Older, Too” foreshadowed the upcoming loss of community that Jacob would experience while his child was being born.
The political and personal impacts live in each song, sharing the sense of loss and confusion Brodovsky felt through the process. At the same time, the collection of songs shares more hope than disappointment. With a close listen, many songs show the importance of finding true community, seeing good in tough situations, and learning to feel less allergic to growing up and getting older.
On one level, the album is a clear message to Jacob’s former campers and staff. On another level, telling the kids we tried is directed at his own two children, hoping for understanding as to why he’s raising them in a world that’s getting harder and harder to believe in.
Finally, it’s a reminder for all of us as we try to carve space for kindness and community in an increasingly bleak time. Please, tell them we tried.
PRE-SAVE TELL THE KIDS WE TRIED HERE
TOUR DATES
Mar 19 - Winnipeg, MB, Time’s Changed
Mar 21 - Inglis, MB - Roots At Rusty’s
Apr 10 - Cochrane, AB - Found Bookshop
Apr 11 - Edmonton, AB - Felice Cafe
Apr 12 - Calgary, AB - The King Eddy
Apr 12 - Red Deer, AB - House Concert
Apr 14 - Vulcan, AB - Nine In A Line Brewing
Apr 15 - Nelson, BC - Small Batch Stage
Apr 16 - Kelowna, BC - Blind Rooster Berry Farm
Apr 17 - Vancouver, BC - The Heatley
Apr 28 - Mission, BC - The Mission Coffee House
May 28-31 - Ymir, BC - Tiny Lights Festival
Jul 09-12 - Winnipeg, MB - Winnipeg Folk Festival
TELL THE KIDS WE TRIED TRACKLIST
01 Past Mistakes
02 Colorado Low
03 Kids
04 Restaurant
05 Older Too
06 Intermission
07 Lack Thereof (with Dominique Adams)
08 Downer
09 Beneath It All (with Charlotte Cornfield)
10 Winters (with MOONRIIVR)
11 It's Alright (with Dominique Adams and Taylor Jackson)
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