Tim Baker Releases Along The Mountain Road + Upcoming Tour Dates
Newfoundland & Labrador’s Tim Baker releases his new EP, Along The Mountain Road today via End Times Music. This EP serves as a companion and pre-cursor to his last album, released almost a year ago to the day, The Festival, Tim’s second solo album after over a decade fronting Hey Rosetta!
Both Along The Mountain Road and The Festival track Tim’s return home to Newfoundland from Toronto over the pandemic, expanding into true form within the exquisite space of the Fogo Island Inn, and back in a place that Tim will always call his home. As he details in his thoughts about the EP title track,
“It’s about the call of nature, of the forest, the coast, the past. It’s about the dream of leaving the city and going back to the land – a dream that never seems to diminish in my mind. I never intended it to sound so epic, but sometimes a song just has to stretch out how it likes, and you should just go along for the ride.”
EP track “Moving” is another catalyst moment, Tim recalling,
“It’s about when you pack up your apartment and for a couple days it feels like it’s already someone else’s apartment, because it’s so empty and weirdly dusty and blank. And it’s about driving east through the pink haze of forest fire smoke from a continent away, and feeling lost, and unsure, but also feeling so good just to be moving, through space, after sitting around fearful and helpless in isolation for so many months. Basically, if you can’t be happy or hopeful or even know what you feel at all, you can at least move, through space, and let feelings pass over and through you, until you do.”
The full EP, with the unreleased “New Key,” “Moving,” “Along The Mountain Road” and previously shared “Pilgrims” and “Twenty Twenty” is available everywhere today.
Tim is set to embark on an almost completely SOLD OUT Canadian tour beginning November 22 in Victoria, BC, working his way East over the course of November and December. Tim will entertain audiences over evenings of songs and stories, stripped-back, and solo performances. The venues range from theatres, halls, playhouses, and culture centres, and include two nights at TD Hall at Massey Hall on December 8 + 9, a venue Tim has frequented. Tour dates out West in November feature support from Matt Holubowksi and December shows feature support from Haley Heynderickx.
First off, care to introduce yourself to our readers?
My name is Tim Baker. I’m in Berlin this morning, but I grew up in St. John’s, Newfoundland, and I still live there. I’m making music here today and I’ve sought to make music most days for the last 18 years or so. For about 13 of those years, I had a band called Hey Rosetta! And for the last 5 or so years I’ve made records under my own name and toured all over with my new band, Tim Baker & All Hands. It’s been wonderful.
Can you tell us more about the inspiration and themes behind your new EP, Along The Mountain Road, and how it relates to your previous album, The Festival?
The songs of Along The Mountain Road were written and recorded around the same time as The Festival, but while The Festival was primarily about dreaming my way through the pandemic, Along The Mountain Road represents another sort of ‘lane’ of songs from that time, centering more on my journey of resettlement from Toronto back home to Newfoundland.
“Pilgrims” is the latest track you’ve shared from the EP. Could you share some insights into the songwriting process and the message behind this particular track?
This was one of the first songs I wrote after my first solo full-length Forever Overhead came out, and I felt it would be an important song on my next album. It came close but had to wait to stand at the centre of this release. It’s about so many things: life as a travelling musician; the joy of it and also the searching of it – for people and place and meaning – like a pilgrim from long ago. And it’s about coming of age as climate change really coalesces as the dominant and existential issue it has; deeply feeling the dread of that, and then the tension between all these things.
Your upcoming tour is quite extensive. Please share some details about what fans can expect from the live performances and the overall experience you aim to create on this tour.
This will be a very unusual tour for me. I generally tour with my 5-to-7-member band, All Hands. I love music. I always want more of it. But this tour will see me performing solo, paring the arrangements down to what kind of fundamentals I can make happen alone. Some songs will sound the way they were written, some will sound new, coloured by different ideas. The venues will be theatres, halls, churches, and cultural centres, and the shows will be personal, conversational, intimate, and fun. I’m hoping the music and stories will expand to fill all the extra space. I’m very much looking forward to the challenge of it and to connecting with people in this way.
The tour includes support from artists like Matt Holubowski and Haley Heynderickx. What do you appreciate most about collaborating with other musicians, and how do you choose artists to tour with you?
Well, collaboration is the best way to find yourself somewhere new, beautiful, and interesting that you couldn’t have gotten to on your own. It makes you grow. Both Matt and Haley are incredible musicians and writers and I can’t wait to get to know them better. I’m a fan. That’s generally how I choose who to invite. I’m absolutely thrilled they are coming out with me.
What can fans expect from you in 2024?
Oh, I’ve lots on the go here for 2024. The first half of the year will see me recording and finishing up a project I’ve been working on for ages, and also doing a few small solo runs supporting friends on their tours. Then some summer festivals, a new release, more touring, more writing, more recording, more videos, the disc spins around, and hopefully, with it, dancing!
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