Justin Rutledge - Valleyheart - VINYL LP

Juno Award winning artist, Justin Rutledge returns with his new album, Passages. Justin's band on Passages includes guitarist Rob Baker from the Tragically Hip, and the album was co-produced by Justin and Chris Stringer (Timbre Timbre, Elliot Brood, The Wooden Sky). The NOW Magazine Toronto Songwriter of the Year, CMFA Album of The Year winner and multi Polaris nominee recorded Passages in-between getting married to HGTV Canada star Sarah Keenleyside and his acclaimed performance in the Montreal run of the Tony Award winning musical, Once.Justin Rutledge has fans in Gordon Lightfoot and Man Booker Prize winner Michael Ondaatje (who co-wrote InchBoatsInch on Passages) and has been hailed by The Line of Best Fit as Inchas strong as Neil Young in his primeInch along with The Toronto Star proclaiming InchRutledge can spin a yarn just as well as Bruce SpringsteenInch. Similar artists include Jason Isabell, Ryan Adams, Wilco, Lord Huron.This is a priority for Outside Music that will be supported by a full marketing campaign, with English Canadian press handled by Stephanie Hardman, Canvas Media for radio, Six Media for French Canada, Silver PR for the UK and Starkult for Germany. Touring in support of Passages will begin with a duo tour with Rob Baker throughout Ontario in March 2019, and will continue with extensive headline touring across Canada and in international markets.1 Captive 2 Allisonville3 Passages4 Good Man5 Not Enough6 One Winter's Day7 Weight of the World8 Belleville Breakup9 Chains10 Boats

Vinyl LP pressing. A youth hostel in London, a dim lit bar in Toronto, the back of the van rolling through the prairies. These are the places that Justin Rutledge penned many of his songs, isolated, him and a guitar. Over the years, those songs have graced records that have won awards, soundtracked weddings, TV shows and film, and gained fans in Gordon Lightfoot, Ron Sexsmith and Dolly Parton. On Islands, Justin revisits those songs, in the manner which they were conceived, sparse accompaniment, just JR and his guitar. Islands runs the gamut of his catalogue, from breakthrough album No Never Alone to the Juno Award winning and CFMA album of the year Valleyheart and his most recent, his fourth Juno nominated album, Passages. The Tragically Hip InchNautical DisasterInch and the live staple InchJellybeanInch appear for the first time on record rounding out this compelling collection of songs from one of Canada's most gifted songwriters.

Justin Rutledge could easily rest on his reputation. Eleven albums in, he's accumulated a daunting body of work upon which one could easily coast. Instead, on InchSomething EasyInch, Justin Rutledge did the opposite. He made things exceedingly difficult for himself and decided to write, record and produce the album by himself at home. With one, then later two, bouncing baby boys underfoot, to boot. The results speak for themselves. InchSomething EasyInch is a serene, stately thing of beauty, a gently paced record that really rewards the patient listener with meticulous detail and unexpected instrumental happenings. It's anything but Rutledge settling into a rut. It will surprise you. That Rutledge can still catch us off guard should not come as a surprise. The man is very good at what he does. Accolades have piled up since he released his first album, InchNo Never AloneInch, via Six Shooter Records and Slowdive/Mojave 3 main man Neil Halstead's Shady Lane Records in 2004. He's won a Juno Award for Roots Album of the Year in 2014 for the album InchValleyheartInch - which also landed him a Canadian Folk Music Award - and has since been nominated for three more Junos. He's been longlisted twice for the critic-voted Polaris Music Prize. InchAll of these songs are about youth, and I hadn't realized that,Inch he says. InchAnd it's interesting because I feel that, as a new dad, there's this transition that's happening where suddenly I'm realizing I'm in my 40s. And what's happening is that our wild-and-free years are suddenly over there, and our 'middle-aged' years are now right here. I feel like I'm at this apex where I'm thinking a lot about my youth, But I'm not lamenting anything. I'm not old, I'm just shocked at how suddenly this new phase of life has begun.Inch1. Angry Young Man2. Seventeen3. Cowards4. Head For The Hills5. Not Myself6. Easy7. Lioness8. Mary 9. London