Canadian folk trio BOREAL announces new album Winterbirds and shares title track today
Canadian folk trio Boreal shares “Winterbirds,” the title track from their sophomore album that will be officially released on all digital platforms on March 7.
Singer/songwriters Tannis Slimmon, Katherine Wheatley and Angie Nussey began making Winterbirds in 2023 as the long-overdue follow-up to Boreal’s 2014 debut album Winter’s Welcome. While a chilly theme is still predominant on much of Winterbirds, it’s a collection intended to bring joy year-round, with the music presenting a balance of soulful intensity with moments of lightness and celebration.
Among the album’s other standout tracks are Angie’s “Shepherd Of The Road,” inspired by a conscientious truck driver who helped guide her home during a blizzard, Tannis’s “Weathervane,” co-written with Guelph, Ontario music scene fixture Lewis Melville, Katherine’s haunting “Beautiful Blue,” and a cover of the Gordon Lightfoot perennial favourite, “Song For A Winter’s Night.”
“Collaborating with Tannis and Katherine feels like working with a dream team,” Angie says. “We admire each other’s strengths, which inspires us to continually elevate our efforts for one another. The whole is definitely greater than the sum of its parts. And to top it all off, we share a ton of laughter along the way.”
Along with Lewis Melville, other contributions to Winterbirds were made by Boreal’s fellow Guelph music scene veterans Sam Cino (drums) and Tyler Wagler (bass), as well as Les Stroud (TV’s “Survivorman”) who provided several weeks of recording time at his home studio in Huntsville, Ontario. In all, it’s an album that Boreal fans have been clamouring for since the group resumed its regular touring schedule when pandemic restrictions were lifted.
Whether working together or on their own, the three accomplished women that comprise Boreal represent the best of what Canadian folk music has to offer. Since Tannis and Katherine first teamed up in the early 2000s — with Angie coming on board in 2019 — Boreal has been enchanting audiences with otherworldly harmonies and storytelling that’s both humourous and heartbreaking.
As Katherine says,
“We don’t have what you call a ‘sister blend,’ and I think our distinctive voices are a big part of what defines our sound. Tannis’s voice floats, taking us on a soft ride above the clouds. Angie has a powerhouse voice that takes us on the best downhill ski you’ve ever had. My voice is earthy, deep, and wide, and I think anchors us as a trio.”
Now, as we cope with another extended stretch of cold and darkness, Boreal’s Winterbirds is set to arrive just in time to help get us through it.