Guelph, Ontario roots rocker’s solo debut is a heartfelt and uplifting meditation on grief
Following the singles “Won’t Say Goodbye” and “Grief,” today Canadian singer/songwriter Harry Lee Follon releases his full new EP Uncle’s Lament on Bandcamp, Spotify, and Apple Music.
With his thick grey beard and ubiquitous wide-brimmed hat, Harry Lee Follon looks like a man transplanted from a previous century. But that timeless image is the ideal reflection of his music—pure, honest songs that are as emotionally resonant in 2024 as they would have been in 1924.
On Uncle’s Lament, Follon bares his soul on five songs, accompanied only by pedal steel guitarist Chris Hierlihy and fiddler Ally Corbett, a marked change from his prior work with his band Uncle Harry & the Kickstands. Follon wrote most of the songs during the pandemic, and the isolation he was feeling suggested they would be better suited for a solo project. After getting the green light from his label, Down By The Point Records (Matt Paxton & The Pintos, Ben Somer), Follon laid down the tracks with his trusted producer Michael Keire at Threshold Recording in Hamilton, Ontario.
“In 2021, I lost my Mom, and there’s no denying she is all over these tunes,” Follon says. “My Mother loved music, and she will always be a major influence on me—and my music. These songs are all about love and loss.”
While that’s certainly true of “Won’t Say Goodbye” and “Grief,” it’s still hard not to be uplifted by Follon’s vocal performances and his natural ease at crafting memorable melodies. The overall feeling while listening to Uncle’s Lament is something close to sitting in a front parlour enjoying good friends playing music together.
Indeed, making the record turned out to be the remedy Follon needed to help heal his soul.
“I’ve always heard people grieve in different ways,” he says. “I never quite understood that until feeling my own loss. I was starting to get sick of people saying, ‘It’ll be OK.’ I had to learn to do what is best for myself, and music became a big part of embracing self-care.”
On the other hand, Follon still wanted to include some light-hearted moments on Uncle’s Lament, one being “Sunshine Cup,” which he describes as a glimpse of how his wife put up with him during the pandemic. The song is also a showcase for the instrumental interplay between Hierlihy’s pedal steel and Corbett’s fiddle.
It’s another standout example of Follon’s commitment to following in the footsteps of John Prine and Townes Van Zandt, although he says that he’s also inspired by younger artists working in that tradition, such as Jeffery Martin and Joe Pug, as well as fellow Canadians Spencer Burton and Zachary Lucky. With Uncle’s Lament, Follon’s name certainly belongs on that roll call.