New album Forks - April 18, 2020

Folk/Rock Canadiana duo, The Strange Valentines release their seventh album, bringing an acoustic vulnerability in live captured moments for their community with Forks. This forthcoming album will be released April 18, 2020 with release party at the Grace Jollymore Joyce Centre in Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia on the same day. (NOW CHANGED TO LIVE STREAM VIA FACEBOOK as per COVID-19...)

The Strange Valentines are noted for their unique blend of Canadiana contemporary folk drawn from Australian rock (David Farrell) and Nova Scotia folk (Janet Mills). Strong melodies, soulful stories, quirky humour, smidges of salt and grit, and rich harmonies mark each soulful performance. Inspired by the work of The Waifs and Jason Isbell, they come out sounding somewhere between Brandi Carlisle and The Milk Carton Kids. Both members share lead and harmony vocals, using wit and sincerity to tell provocative stories.

Since releasing Odd Angled Love Songs for Humans in 2019, The Strange Valentines have moved across the country from Regina, Saskatchewan to River John, Nova Scotia. The forks along the way have been inspiration to create an album of ‘forks’. The tone is a real life honest and human reflection of experience with acoustic instrumentation and harmonies.

The album Forks was produced exclusively by David Farrell of his home studio, Feral Studios and was ‘A real challenge to capture that elusive element of live and personal we wanted, but in the end, I love how it turned out’. The album artwork including 'Guy Forks' was all Ken Tulloch's vision and production. The duo will be touring with the album across Canada this June and reaching the UK in August.

The songs have different tones, from the disillusionment of the current state of knowledge translation in Dark Ages, the tragic hypothetical love song of A Week, to the heart-wrenching angst that goes into the decision to leave an unethical career in Fool’s Gold. But the songs are unified in their effort to represent poignant decisions and places; forks that are part of the human experience.

Unique to this album release, is the method of release. In the spirit of planet kindness, this album is being released with minimum impact, minimum plastic, and primarily as an artful lyric booklet with download codes. For a small addition an optional CD can be purchased for those that will use them. Environmental impact, sustainability, and kindness are important qualities to the duo as well as many of their community and is reflected in this release.

Songs

Dark Ages

Heartbreak

The Sailor

Broken Dishes

Love Songs

A Week

Heart of the Home

Snowstorms

Disconnected

Fools Gold

High Horse

Coyotes in the Cornfield

Heartbreak

The Strange Valentines

The tragic part of love are the heartbreaks. But without endings there can be no beginnings. But oh those endings. Heartbreak is a gentle acoustic relatable song full of the misery and reflection of loss.