Canadian alt-rock/alt-folk artist LYNN JACKSON shares first single “Ghost Walking” from upcoming album Mirrors
Canadian singer/songwriter Lynn Jackson shares “Ghost Walking,” the first preview of her new album Mirrors, set for release on Sept. 12 via Busted Flat Records. The song finds Jackson building upon her previous experiments with alt-rock and gothic Americana, a sound that blends with the overall lyrical theme of Mirrors, resulting in her most personal and musically diverse collection to date.
The Kitchener, Ontario-based Jackson took a self-imposed hiatus after releasing her previous album, 2022’s I Am Only the Moon, but soon after that her life was upended when she was told the man she believed was her father was, in fact, not. The only way for her to process the devastating news was to write through it.
Lynn explains,
“Many of the songs on Mirrors are based on recollections I have from the time when I was young, up to high school and into my early twenties. The songs are kind of ‘flashes’ of memories, or ‘reflections’ of key moments in my life in those formative years. There were lots of difficulties, especially at home.”
She adds,
“I think ‘Ghost Walking’ best sums up my approach on this album. It’s about looking back on your life as if you were watching a film with key moments highlighted—those spectacular heights, those crushing blows, and new discoveries, like playing music, that have become such a part of your makeup that you don’t consciously think of them. They are just there.”
Along with “Ghost Walking,” that theme provides the foundation for other standout tracks, “Rooms Full of Mirrors,” “I Was,” “Gas Station to Nowhere” and “Into the Distance.” Mirrors also includes re-imagined covers of Sinead O’Connor’s “Troy” and Soundgarden’s “Rusty Cage.” In short, Lynn held nothing back in the studio, crafting haunting string arrangements on some songs in collaboration with violinist Alison Corbett and cellist Nick Storring, while on others laying down some raw, live-off-the floor rock and roll with her trusted group of players.
Since releasing her 2004 debut, Night Songs. Lynn has been remarkably prolific, releasing 12 albums and along the way working with Michael Timmins of Cowboy Junkies, and even Norman Blake of Teenage Fanclub during the few years when he was a Kitchener resident.