Ben Caplan announces new album, shares first single and tour dates

Halifax-based performer Ben Caplan’s new album ‘Old Stock’ comes out June 15. Upcoming tour includes a fall performance in Moncton.

Ben Caplan | WEB | FACEBOOK | TWITTER | INSTAGRAM

When you think of Ben Caplan, some of the first things to come to mind may be (in no particular order): Halifax, beard, BIG voice, and a zillion tour dates. Caplan is also the type of performer that you can’t ignore. If you’re in a room where he’s performing, there’s no looking away. But besides having an unparalleled and commanding stage presence, Caplan’s appreciation for Eastern European music and its influence on his own writing is equally undeniable.

This week, Caplan shared the track Widow Bride, the first single from his upcoming album Old Stock, due out June 15. From the opening accordion riff and subsequent instrumentation complete with fiddle and clarinet to the layered rhythms and traditional folk structure assembled around Caplan’s demented storyteller delivery, Widow Bride is a powerful glimpse at what’s to come.

In an accompanying statement released with the single, Caplan explains how the story behind Widow Bride is rooted much closer to home.

“I wanted to put this song on album because it was important to me that the album include a nod to the First Peoples who were in this land before colonists, settlers, and various waves of immigrants and refugees arrived,” said Caplan. “The song quotes Queen Victoria ‘looking for a strong young man to match up with these virgin lands.’ The tragedy of the song is the central lie of North America. These were not ‘virgin lands’. The bride was indeed beautiful, but she already had a groom, and he was still very much alive.”

Old Stock is a concept album adapted from the musical theatre production Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story by Hannah Moscovitch. The original production debuted in Halifax in May 2017 and received performances at the National Arts Centre and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival with Caplan in the starring role. The play is currently in the midst of a seven week Off-Broadway run at Manhattan’s 59E59 Theatres.

A week after finishing his first Off-Broadway acting stint, Caplan sets out on the first of some 40 performances currently lined up for 2018 with dates in Canada, the US, the UK and parts of Europe.

TOUR DATES