Lynne Hanson touring NB this week

Ottawa-based singer songwriter Lynne Hanson will be touring New Brunswick this week with dates in Perth-Andover, Fredericton and Moncton.

She’s been called “Canada’s own Queen of Americana.” And the first line of her bio furthers that distinction:

Too tough for folk and too blues-influenced for country, Lynne Hanson’s brand of porch music with a little red dirt can turn on a dime from a sunshine, blue sky ballad to a full on thunderstorm of gritty Americana swamp from one song to the next.

Hanson will be touring New Brunswick this week in support of her new album, Ice Cream in November. For this release, her ninth, Hanson chose to sidestep o few of the rich Americana themes that helped define her previous albums. Instead, Ice Cream in November, as the title might suggest, is a little something out of the ordinary for Hanson. Songs like Hundred Mile Wind and Birds Without a Feather help carry Hanson’s established audience through to some of the album’s more adventurous songs like In On A Wing, with it’s synth led intro melody and poppy guitar leads, and the straight-up ballideering of Orion’s Belt.

“I don’t want to keep making the same record over and over again,” said Hanson. “Getting outside of my artistic comfort zone and trying new things is what keeps things fresh for me at this point in my career.”

Ice Cream in November was co-produced by Hanson and multi-instrumentalist Blair Michael Hogan. The album was mixed and mastered by Grammy-nominated sound engineer Phil Shaw Bova and recorded by Hanson and Hogan in their home studios over a two-month period in late summer 2021.

Hear it live this week.