Sarah Jane Scouten - The Cape (2014)

The Cape was named after Montreal roots and country-folk artist Sarah Jane Scoutens childhood playground Cape Roger Curtis on Bowen Island BC, and a stormy seven-and-a-half minute long ballad by the same name. The record throws a wake for all the things we wont have back again. Youll find it in the shameless nostalgia for place, time, lost loved ones, frayed family ties and bonds too strong to break.

A traditionalist at heart, she once again shows her signature flair for the roots of roots music, ranging from Western-swing, honky-tonk, Cajun and Appalachian string band music and a hint of the Maritimes. With respect for these roots, she writes from her own perspective, rather than taking on a persona or copying a style, and only writes about what she knows profoundly. As such, the album hits hard and close to home, but also takes off into fiction with songs like Black Strap Sadie, Our Small Town and I Had To Be Right. There are songs about the North, the South, the East and the West and songs like When I Told You I Loved You about traveling in between. The album finishes with an original French-language song and fiddle tune called "Change of Heart Waltz," written in a Cajun style.

Sarah Jane Scouten and her Brilliant String Band Sarah Frank on fiddle, Luke Fraser on mandolin and Mathieu Lacombe on bass will be launching their new record with a cross-Canada CD release tour, with several American dates and will be touring the UK in July.

The new album was recorded and produced by Juno-nominated producer Andrew Collins The Foggy Hogtown Boys, The Creaking Tree String Quartet and Annielou at Sytesound Studio in Toronto and was mastered by David Travers-Smith. The Cape also features Aaron Goldstein on pedal steel City and Colour, Daniel Romano, Treasa Levasseur on accordion Corin Raymond and the Sundowners, Sly Juhas on drums and Sarah Janes sister and fellow Montreal songwriter, Anna Scouten lending her arresting blood-harmonies. Like the audible photo album it is, cover design for The Cape uses archival photographs from the Bowen Island Museum and Archives.