John K. Samson's New Album 'Winter Wheat' Out Now
The highly anticipated new album by renowned singer-songwriter John K. Samson entitled Winter Wheat arrives in stores today.
Inspired by the search for connection and community, and our individual and collective struggles with addictions to drugs, screens, and fossil fuels, Winter Wheat, is a sprawling, masterful and timely work by a writer at the peak of his powers.
In conjunction with the record’s release, Samson has unveiled a video for the track “Postdoc Blues,” a moving and powerful song that follows an aging student struggling to maintain faith in the possibility of a better world.
The clip references themes from the Leap Manifesto, a political manifesto issued by a coalition of Canadian authors, activists, artists, and musicians (Neil Young, Arcade Fire, Leonard Cohen and more) not to mention 42,000 citizens and counting. The manifesto calls for a restructuring of the Canadian economy as well as an end to the use of fossil fuels, and advocates for the inherent rights of Indigenous communities.
Samson was an early endorser of the manifesto and its themes resonate throughout both the album and the video for “Postdoc Blues.”
Avi Lewis, a noted documentarian and co-founder of the Leap Manifesto says of Samson, “While the Leap was born out of this rich cultural ground, John K. Samson is the first to use it as musical fuel - giving a bolt of new energy to our hope for deep change and a cleaner, fairer future.”
The video’s director Nathan Boey explains, “I've been a John K Samson fan for a long time so it was an honor to create visuals for one of his songs. Learning that the Leap Manifesto was involved provided an opportunity to contribute towards a cause that I am proud to be a part of.”
Watch the video for John K. Samson’s “Postdoc Blues" https://leapmanifesto.org/en/postdoc/
Early Critical Acclaim for Winter Wheat
“Winter Wheat finds Samson experimenting with various songwriting approaches that feel totally fresh….it’s a more personal album than Samson devotees are accustomed to, but like all of his songwriting endeavors, Winter Wheat slowly reveals interconnected themes and characters with each new listen. “ – Bandcamp
“Samson's songs feel lived-in in ways that register as universal.” – NPR
"Perhaps more than any other Canadian musician, Samson, the former frontman for The Weakerthans, has been able to communicate what it means and feels like to live in a place defined by isolation." - Fader
“Winter Wheat is smart indie-folk that never tries to be anything besides John K. Samson’s peculiar vision… that vision can be funny, thoughtful, and heartbreaking - - - often all at the same time. Winter Wheat’s disarming Canadian charm is enough to warrant a listen.” – Northern Transmissions
“John K. Samson's name will occasionally come up in discussions about Canada's greatest lyricists alongside Gord Downie, Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchell, and his second solo album, Winter Wheat, makes yet another strong case that he's not cited often enough.” - Exclaim
John K. Samson Tour Dates:
1/28/17 Los Angeles, CA - The Wiltern
1/29/17 San Francisco, CA - The Warfield