ALLISON RUSSELL SHARES COVER OF THE TRAGICALLY HIP’S “WHEAT KINGS”, CANADIAN TOUR BEGINS OCTOBER 22

ALLISON RUSSELL SHARES HER COVER OF THE TRAGICALLY HIP’S “WHEAT KINGS”

THE FIRST SINGLE FROM IT’S A GOOD LIFE IF YOU DON’T WEAKEN ORIGINAL CAST RECORDING – A MUSICAL WITH SONGS BY THE TRAGICALLY HIP OUT OCTOBER 23

RUSSELL TO PERFORM “WHEAT KINGS” LIVE FOR THE FIRST TIME AT 2026 CANADIAN SONGWRITERS HALL OF FAME INDUCTION CEREMONY PRESENTED BY AMAZON MUSIC ON SEPTEMBER 26 AT MASSEY HALL IN HONOUR OF THE TRAGICALLY HIP 

BUY / STREAM “WHEAT KINGS (THE TRAGICALLY HIP COVER)” HERE

CANADIAN TOUR BEGINS OCTOBER 22 | ALL DATES LISTED BELOW | TICKETS HERE

ALLISON RUSSELL’S THIRD STUDIO ALBUM IN THE HOUR OF CHAOS OUT NOW FROM FANTASY RECORDS

Photo Credit: Mason Poole // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

Following the success of the critically-acclaimed musical It's a Good Life If You Don't Weaken – A New Musical with Songs by The Tragically Hip that premiered in Hamilton earlier this year, a conceptual cast album featuring the original cast vocalists as well as special guest vocalist Allison Russell will be available on October 23 via Universal Music Canada.

"Wheat Kings" featuring GRAMMY and JUNO award-winning, critically acclaimed singer-songwriter Allison Russell, is the first single off the upcoming album. Russell will perform “Wheat Kings” for the first time live at the 2026 Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame induction ceremony on September 26 at Massey Hall in honour of The Tragically Hip. In collaboration with Amazon Music, the event will also be livestreamed globally on the Amazon Music channel on Twitch and streamed on Prime Video in Canada. Purchase tickets to the event HERE. 

“The Hip unite us. Perhaps never more so than in Gord’s last days with us. Their legacy is living and growing. I don’t have adequate words to express how meaningful and moving it was for this Canadian girl who came up in the 90s, to get to be a small part of it. Working with Steve Berlin and doing my best to pay homage to Gord, whose poetry and art as activism, is foundational to mine, was a surreal, joyful dream. “Wheat Kings” is as relevant today as the day it was written. I hope I did them proud. “ - Allison Russell

BUY / STREAM “WHEAT KINGS (THE TRAGICALLY HIP COVER)” HERE

MORE ABOUT IT’S A GOOD LIFE IF YOU DON’T WEAKEN
Produced by the multi-award-winning Michael Rubinoff (Come From Away), It’s a Good Life If You Don’t Weaken immerses audiences in a powerful original story set to the timeless music of The Tragically Hip, capturing the raw energy, heartfelt lyrics, and unmistakable spirit that have become central to Canada’s musical identity.

Set in 2002, the musical follows Waleed, an exiled journalist starting over in Canada, whose life takes an unexpected turn when he unexpectedly falls for Kate, the owner of a local music store. Their connection is immediate and undeniable. But when circumstances change, they are forced to confront duty, uncertainty, and what truly matters – and where they each belong.

MORE ABOUT ALLISON RUSSELL + IN THE HOUR OF CHAOS
The songs on Allison Russell’s latest album, In the Hour of Chaos are meant to reverse the tides that pull us farther and farther apart, even from ones we love the most. It’s only fitting that Russell leaned into her vibrant and ever expanding community of artists and friends to create a collaborative song suite that goes far beyond a succession of features. 

These songs unfold like a series of one act plays with Allison, who joins with an artist(s) from her rainbow diaspora, many from her adopted home in Nashville. Tactile, vulnerable, raw, soothing, sensual, and sad, each is a little capsule of humans being fully human and fully present. Allison Russell curates her collaborators with care including Norah Jones’ intimate ease on “Really Real” and Ruby Amanfu’s vulnerable grace on “Just Like Saturday”, both serve as portals into our flawed, fantastic, interconnected lives.

Early releases from the album include her Juneteenth single ft. Brittney Spencer “Black Lavender”, a celebration of sisterhood; “No Springtime” featuring Joy Oladokun and Julie Williams; and “Cold April”, a track showing intergenerational depth by featuring her tourmate Kara Jackson who is a recent collaborator of the Gorillaz and formerly the U.S. National Youth Poet Laureate, Denitia, and a CMT Next Women of Country selection who was also featured in Dolly Parton’s Threads: My Songs in Symphony. The track also includes the Explore! Pop Choir featuring Russell’s daughter, Ida.

WATCH / SHARE “COLD APRIL” HERE
FT. KARA JACKSON, DENITIA & EXPLORE! POP CHOIR

WATCH / SHARE “BLACK LAVENDER” FT. BRITTNEY SPENCER HERE

Elsewhere, Devon Gilfillian brings effortless warmth to “Love is a Golden Lion”, Chibueze Ihuoma adds an otherworldly tenderness to “Two Stars”, and Ahya Simone’s incomparable harp closes the circle with the haunting “Good Omens”. Across these songs, Russell holds the center effortlessly, while illuminating the voices of her chosen family. She turns these throughlines into golden thread, strengthening as she weaves, the only protection she knows against the chaos of this hour.
Russell also took the stage at the JUNO Awards earlier this year to pay tribute to fellow Canadian, Joni Mitchell with a duet between her and Sarah McLachlan. Russell is currently on tour throughout North America with McLachlan – see a full list of her tour dates below. 

WATCH ALLISON RUSSELL & SARAH MCLACHLAN AT THE 2026 JUNO AWARDS

WATCH / SHARE “NO SPRINGTIME” FT. JOY OLADOKUN & JULIE WILLIAMS HERE

Allison Russell just completed her second run on Broadway as Persephone in the 8x Tony Award winning musical Hadestown. She took over the role in November 2024 initially, after spending much of that year opening for Hozier on his Unreal Unearth Tour supporting his arena run on all US dates and throughout Europe. She made her Billboard Hot 100 debut thanks to their duet “Wildflower & Barley”.

The accolades for Russell have been immense. Last year she was shortlisted for the Polaris Music Prize and named Billboard Women In Music Canada’s “Breakthrough Artist of the Year”. She has had 8 GRAMMY Award nominations and one win, earned three 2022 Americana Award nominations and a win for Album of the Year with subsequent nominations in 2023 and 2024, two International Folk Music Award wins, a 2022 JUNO Award nomination for Songwriter of the Year, and her first-ever JUNO Award win for Contemporary Roots Album of the Year. Russell won three Canadian Folk Music Awards, two UK Americana Music Awards, and more. 

BUY / STREAM IN THE HOUR OF CHAOS HERE

MORE ABOUT ALLISON RUSSELL
Montreal-born, Nashville-based Allison Russell is a GRAMMY, JUNO, Americana, SOCAN, and Folk Award–winning artist and Polaris Music Prize–shortlisted singer-songwriter, producer, author, actor, and human rights advocate.

Her acclaimed solo debut Outside Child (2021) was followed by The Returner (2023), released via Concord/Fantasy. Prior to her solo work, she co-founded and toured internationally with Po’Girl, Birds of Chicago, and Our Native Daughters, and remains an active collaborator with OND and a member of Joni Mitchell’s Joni Jam.

Her forthcoming memoir will be published by LittleBrown, and her third album is slated for release in 2026.

PRAISE FOR ALLISON RUSSELL

“Allison Russell finds hope amid the chaos” The Globe & Mail

“a duet of comfort, affirmation, praise and solace...The song recognizes opposition and the need to stay defensive, but it’s determinedly optimistic.” - The New York Times re: “Black Lavender”

"Allison Russell is one of those performers who smile as they hypnotize. She lulls you into a delighted state and then all of a sudden, you realize her talent has wrapped itself around you, and there is no escape" - American Songwriter

“In the Hour of Chaos testifies to the power of resilience and unity in the face of the political, social, economic, and personal chaos we face daily in these times...Russell creates an ebullient community of song." - No Depression
. “Russell's voice, ringing clear and stronger than ever, glides atop a grooving bassline to reveal magic in each corner — if only you remember where to look.” CBC Music re: “Rainbows”

“Allison Russell leans into the healing power of music on ‘Cold April’... With voices lifted together, Russell channels resilience, community, and the strength to keep moving forward.” - KCRW re: “Cold April”

ALLISON RUSSELL CANADIAN TOUR DATES
Oct 22 – Massey Hall – Toronto, ON
Oct 23 – Theatre Beanfield – Montreal, QC
Oct 24 – Imperial Bell – Quebec City, QC
Oct 25 – National Arts Centre - Southam Hall – Ottawa, ON 
Nov 03 – Burton Cummings Theatre – Winnipeg, MB
Nov 05 – Winspear Centre – Edmonton, AB
Nov 06 – Grey Eagle Resort & Event Centre – Calgary, AB
Nov 09 – Chan Centre for the Performing Arts  – Vancouver, BC

ALLISON RUSSELL ONLINE:
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EMMA WORLEY’S SOPHOMORE LP OUT TODAY, SHARES NEW VIDEO

EMMA WORLEY’S NEW ALBUM, FOREVER BEGINNER, OUT TODAY
VIA ACRONYM RECORDS

WATCH / SHARE “FOREVER BEGINNER” HERE

BUY / STREAM FOREVER BEGINNER HERE

ON TOUR IN CANADA NOW - FULL DATES BELOW

Photo Credit : Laura-Lynn Petrick // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

Today, Emma Worley releases her sophomore album, Forever Beginner, an album that tucks grief, joy, humour, and pain into the same fold. Blending alternative folk and Americana, the album was crafted over two years with producer, multi-instrumentalist, and longtime collaborator Ben Whiteley (The Weather Station, Joan Shelley). Emerging during a transformative period in her life, one shaped by chronic illness, treatment, healing, and resilience, Forever Beginner is an open-hearted, self-reckoning body of work. To celebrate the occasion, Worley is sharing the new video for the album’s title track, “Forever Beginner”.

WATCH / SHARE “FOREVER BEGINNER” HERE

MORE ABOUT FOREVER BEGINNER
What feels old and new at the same time, Forever Beginner is a folk-ish, country-ish, americana-ish record featuring an ensemble of incredible players and a songwriter who has found her voice. Worley is an artist with a keen sensitivity to the denseness of reality and the ability to write in a way that can feel intensely profound yet simple. The album’s title represents a restructuring of internalized expectations of oneself. In Worley’s words, “it’s a kind of self-acceptance through being open and detached. We are forever emerging and always becoming more of who we are.” Tucking grief, joy, humour, and pain into the same fold, the songs on Forever Beginner have a peculiar openness and self-awareness to them that echo the album's thesis. 

Making Forever Beginner began with a core band of Ben Whiteley on bass, Jasper Smith on guitar, and Julian Psihogios on drums, amid a classic humid Toronto summer in Whiteley’s garage-converted-studio. These initial sessions had a loose and collaborative atmosphere, steered by a group of great players and friends supporting Worley’s songs. Speaking with Jasper Smith, it is obvious that Emma has quietly earned a deep respect from her peers; “Emma has a clear, intuitive understanding of classic song form. Every new song I hear tears me down and rebuilds me again. Crushingly beautiful.” 

WATCH / SHARE “COMEDY CLUB” HERE

After laying the bedtracks, the studio became a revolving door of friends and touring musicians dropping in to contribute. Georgia Harmer recorded vocals for “Comedy Club” between her own sessions with Whiteley, and Wyatt C. Louis stopped by while on tour to layer in some more harmonies. Will Kidman added his signature voice on “Hardware Store in Heaven” and “the song in my heart is a hard one to play”. Friends Lia Pappas-Kemps and Dylan Burchell floated in and out, each adding their distinct vocal textures. Supporting these vocal melodies and grounding the record’s folk-Americana sound are the additions of Matt Kelly (pedal steel), Tamara Lindeman (piano), Ken Whiteley (organ), and Kendal Carson (fiddle). 

The record-making process was a light thing during a heavy time for Emma. She had spent the past few years travelling back and forth to Europe to receive treatment for a health condition not available in Canada. The medical support she received was life-changing, though it was also emotionally and mentally demanding. Prioritizing her health meant placing her life, career, and artistic ambitions on hold and accepting a long process of healing. However, creating Forever Beginner would become a way for Worley to reframe her feelings of falling behind. “I’ve spent most of my life being hard on myself,” says Worley. “I’m finally learning to soften into my own nature, and songs are a place I’ve always gotten to do that.” 

WATCH / SHARE “WEEKEND BABY” HERE

And while the record is not a concept album, its theme of self-reckoning and re-emergence can be felt on the album’s final track “Known”, where Worley offers a reflection on time, utility, and the fragile nature of belonging. Recorded sparsely, just Emma’s voice and piano gently supported by pedal steel, organ and bass, the song follows the life of a piano, from its beginnings as a felled tree to being turned into an instrument that would affect the lives of so many, only to eventually become ‘dead weight / a burden to move / a burden to tune’. The lyrics draw a parallel to how quickly our own foundations can fall away. It captures the disorientation of realizing a person or place or situation is no longer what it was, and finding yourself in the silence of this change: ‘now I’m nowhere / feeling nothing / feeling known by no one’. 

It is perhaps within this ‘nowhere’ that the essence of Forever Beginner emerges, reminding us that to be human is to be perpetually unfinished. It invites us to keep learning, keep failing, and to find hope in remaining a beginner, forever.

WATCH / SHARE “BUDDY” LYRIC VIDEO

EMMA WORLEY PERFORMANCE DATES
Sept 18 - Harvest Moon Festival, Bridgewater, NS * 
Sept 19 - Babas Lounge, Charlottetown, PEI *
Sept 20 - House Show, Halifax, NS * 
Sept 22 - Commune, Truro, NS - *
Sept 23 - Greenslades, Sackville, NB *

* with Talel McBriar and Claire Hunter

BUY / STREAM FOREVER BEGINNER HERE

Album Cover Artwork by Elycia SFA // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

FOREVER BEGINNER TRACKLIST
01 Weekend Baby
02 Comedy Club
03 Hardware Store in Heaven
04 All For Nothing
05 Buddy
06 Forever Beginner
07 the song in my heart is a hard one to play
08 Cupid The Vandal
09 Known

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SPENCER BURTON SHARES INTIMATE NEW SONG FROM UPCOMING LP

Photo Credit : Vanessa Heins // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

Home, as we so often hear, is where the heart is. It’s where you belong and where your story begins. There’s no place like it, but paradoxically, it’s not a place; it’s a feeling –simultaneously sweet, simple, the anchor of the soul.

It’s a recurring theme throughout Spencer Burton’s new self-titled record, and continues with the new single, “Bound For Home”. "I wrote this song in the hospital, bedside to my son, while he was recovering from brain surgery,” says Burton. “He's a homebody and being away for as long as we were, in such a foreign environment really took a toll on him. Three months we spent together in the hospital. We'd fall asleep together, we'd wake up together. Every morning I'd ask him a question...the same question I ask him every morning no matter where we are. ‘What were you dreaming about?’. Every day we were in the hospital his answer was the same: ‘dreaming of leaving’. He wanted nothing more than to go home. I wrote the first three verses through his eyes."

BUY / STREAM “BOUND FOR HOME” HERE
LISTEN / SHARE “BOUND FOR HOME” HERE

MORE ABOUT SPENCER BURTON
Over the course of his last two lauded LPs – 2024’s North Wind and 2021’s Coyote – Spencer Burton deeply considered and contemplated the concept of “home”, even retreating to a secluded cabin in the sticks of Northern Ontario to record the former and find “home” for himself.

Ultimately he did, but that blissful discovery would soon be tempered by an unforeseen burden, and on his new self-titled collection, Burton ruminates on how to return to it. “This album was also written in isolation, though not by choice,” he begins, recalling the harrowing experience of his son requiring emergency life-saving surgery at the foot of 2025. “Our lives were turned upside down; it was very sudden and very urgent.”

His wife refused to leave the bedside, and since only one parent could remain in the cramped hospital room around the clock, that once again left Burton with ample time for insular introspection – albeit this time, not by choice.

“I just started writing songs about the whole experience, and playing them for my family became a way for all of us to cope with and work through the situation,” he shares about the weeks-long ordeal. “They don’t necessarily feel like ‘hospital songs,’ but they do carry a recurring theme of home – of wanting home and finding home when you can’t physically be there.”

The resulting collection – like the transformative experience that inspired it – is one rich with hope, home, and healing. What began as the seeds of something deeply personal sprouted into something optimistic and undeniably communal – both figuratively and literally. 

LISTEN / SHARE “CABIN IN THE WOODS” HERE
BUY / STREAM “CABIN IN THE WOODS” HERE

Most of the songs were written and, for a good while, solely performed on an acoustic guitar in a sterile and stodgy Ontario hospital; however, the album – produced by longtime friend Matt Kelly and engineered and mixed by Erik Nielsen – features a diverse and decorated cast of musical collaborators amassed from different eras of his career.

“The last few albums were done down in Nashville, but this one was so personal, I wanted to make it nearer to home with people really close to me,” shares Burton, listing off a list of familiar names who added backing vocals and various instrumentation to the sonic collage. 

The material is beautifully delicate and dulcet – the purest distillation of his prolific, decades-long pursuit in the arts, spanning his roots in Ontario’s seminal early-00s punk scene to his dark-tinged alt-country stylings as Grey Kingdom through to the candid, compelling country-folk catalogue of the last decade-plus, fittingly released under his given name.

His latest works have earned acclaim from esteemed outlets like Exclaim! and the CBC, a coveted Canadian Folk Music Awards nomination, major tours supporting the likes of Burton Cummings and City and Colour, and high-profile slots at revered festivals from Mariposa to Riverfest. His latest is sure to maintain the impressive momentum.  

BUY / STREAM “PRAIRIE MOON” HERE
WATCH “PRAIRIE MOON” (ACOUSTIC PERFORMANCE) HERE
LISTEN / SHARE “PRAIRIE MOON” HERE

“Prairie Moon” opens the album with a perfect summation of all that follows – simple poetry, alliterative, vulnerable, and alive, set to a dynamic backdrop of sweetly subtle and pristinely nuanced instrumentation. It’s effortlessly engaging and memorable, everything seemingly in its right place. 

Closing your eyes to “I Need a Song”, you float into an immaculate concert hall in rural Tennessee, seated in the centre of a wholly rapt audience as the lush harmonies and poignant instrumentation slowly decay into the arched ceiling.

“Little Boy” and the penultimate “Bound for Home” carry considerable weight, the latter inspired by Burton’s then-bedridden son reporting on his dreams from the night before – all longing to be home.  

And fittingly, “Prairie Moon Pt. 2” serves as the perfect response to that longing call, revisiting the sonic envelopment of the opening track and embodying the primary theme of the record as a whole. 

BUY / STREAM “TIME” HERE
WATCH “TIME” (ACOUSTIC PERFORMANCE) HERE
LISTEN / SHARE “TIME” HERE

“It was one of those miracle situations,” reflects Burton, looking back on the surreal experience that spawned the offering. “[My son] is back to being a kid, safe and sound with us at home. I typically write for myself, but these songs were really for me and for my family, to get us through this very specific thing. But going back and revisiting them from the other side of it all, it occurs to me we all face hardships as parents or just as people, and everyone needs comfort and hope and to know they’re not alone.”

Indeed, these 10 tracks offer a powerful testament to the/ idea that one can find home where it originally wasn’t; that a home can be built atop connections and comfort and, most importantly, the people that remind us we’re right where we belong. 

PRE-SAVE SPENCER BURTON HERE
PRE-ORDER LIMITED EDITION 12” AMAZONITE VINYL (500 COPIES)


TOUR DATES // TICKETS HERE
Oct 15 - St. Catharines, ON - Helliwell Hall *
Oct 16 - Toronto, ON - Burdock Music Hall *
Oct 20 - Windsor, ON - Meteor % 
Oct 21 - London, ON - Rum Runners %
Oct 22 - Guelph, ON - Sonic Hall %
Oct 28 - Kingston, ON - Broom Factory ^
Oct 29 - Chelsea, QC - Motel Chelsea ^ 
Oct 30 - Burnstown, ON - Neat Cafe ^

* with Leah Holtom & Ben Vallee
% with Ian James Bain
^ with Evan Redsky

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TRACKLIST
01 Prairie Moon
02 Time
03 Cabin In The Woods
04 I Need A Song
05 Bump In The Road
06 Little Boy
07 In Your Eyes
08 Silence In The Woods
09 Bound For Home
10 Prairie Moon Pt. 2

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