“John Samson’s lyrics move me with their detail and empathy. He has an ability to explain feelings we’ve all had but couldn’t verbalize. His songs are beautiful, brutal, honest and comforting, all at the same time.”—Craig Finn, The Hold Steady
Since 1997, John K. Samson has written four acclaimed albums with The
Weakerthans.
Provincial, Samson’s first solo release began with a simple idea: to explore four different roads in Manitoba, the Canadian province where Samson lives. “They're the places I kept going back to.” Samson talked to relatives, friends and strangers; he visited archives, a tuberculosis sanatorium-turned-RV park, a forgotten cemetery.
The result is this collection of evocative songs, an album that fits beside Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska, or Mountain Goats’ Tallahassee. Provincial is a record full of fierce, tuneful, vivid stories.
