First collaboration between Edmonton singer/songwriters is a stunning collection of original classic country duets
The day has come. Having previewed their first collaboration, The Day Had To Come, with the singles “Secret Subway Conversations,” “Long Long Gone” and “My Heart Up Against You,” Edmonton-based singer/songwriters Sammy Volkov and Dana Wylie have released the full album today, giving fans of classic country duets a genuine reason to rejoice.
Even casual fans of country music are sure to be amazed by how brilliantly the 10 original songs on The Day Had To Come capture the spirit of the genre’s greatest moments when male and female voices intertwined, from George and Tammy to Gram and Emmylou. This is songwriting in its purest form, expressing deep-rooted emotion through two artists pushing themselves beyond what they’ve already achieved on their own.
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—Dana 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 Volkov’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 with producer Harry Gregg 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.”
For Dana, a highlight was creating the album’s opening track, “Secret Subway Conversations.”
“That one’s an instant classic, in my view,” she says. “Sammy’s melody soars in a way that was perfectly conducive to harmonizing, and it’s resulted in something that is both lush and quirky, in the most beautiful way.”
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.
Simply put, The Day Had To Come is one of the best records you’ll hear this year.