Song is on Edmonton artists’ first collection of original classic country duets The Day Had To Come out May 31
After previewing their first collection of original classic country duets, The Day Had To Come, with the stunning singles “Secret Subway Conversations” and “Long Long Gone,” Edmonton-based singer/songwriters Sammy Volkov and Dana Wylie are offering one last taste ahead of the album’s May 31 release with “My Heart Up Against You,” a true weeper that finds Dana taking the lead. It’s a song that contains a hefty spiritual truth within its classic narrative of love and heartbreak – that when love and desire is born in need and desperation, it has as much potential to harm as to heal.
Wylie says,
“I mostly write folk stuff that leans in the direction of blues and jazz, but over the last several years I’ve written a few country songs and haven’t really known what to do with them. I’ve also always loved country duets, and have a particular soft spot for the Gram Parsons records on which Emmylou Harris is featured heavily. It was getting to know Sammy over the last few years that spurred the idea of a duets album, because I consider him to be the ideal singing partner, and I had a feeling he had a few country songs up his sleeve as well. And as it turned out, he had way more than me!”
There is indeed something undeniably powerful about a great country music duet. Just think of George and Tammy, Dolly and Porter, Conway and Loretta—two soaring voices expressing deep-rooted emotion in the most human way possible.
That feeling is embedded in the 10 songs on The Day Had To Come, produced by Harry Gregg in the classic country tradition but with a modern flair that shouldn’t come as any surprise to fans of either Sammy or Dana. Since releasing her 2017 album The Earth That You’re Made Of—which earned her a Canadian Folk Music Awards nomination for Contemporary Singer of the Year—Wylie has managed to balance her other work in live theatre with more recordings that led to her 2023 double album How Much Muscle.
Meanwhile, Sammy’s 2022 debut album Be Alright! firmly established him as an artist on the rise, hitting the #1 spot on the prestigious CKUA Top 30, and other outlets comparing his approach and style to legends such as Roy Orbison and Charlie Rich.
Recording The Day Had To Come turned out to be a revelatory experience for both of them, as each quickly became the other’s number one fan. When asked about the title track, Sammy says,
“I think that song is what made me excited to get this album going with Dana. She was playing it for me in rehearsal one day and I thought, damn, this is brilliant. It feels classic but I know it is entirely rooted in Dana’s own experience.”
Among the many other standouts on The Day Had To Come are Dana’s bouncy “Ain’t Found Heaven Yet,” and Sammy’s devastating ballad “Saw The End Before We Started.” In all, the pair brought out the best in each other, a flame they don’t want to extinguish anytime soon as they plan on taking their show on the road following the album’s release.
If you are someone who appreciates the pure artistry at the core of country music for the past century, The Day Had To Come is sure to be one of the best records you’ll hear this year.