John K. Samson Provincial

The album includes rerecorded versions of the six songs from Samson's earlier EPs City Route 85 and Provincial Road 222, as well as six songs not heard on those EPs.

John K. Samson, singer-songwriter for critically lauded indie rock band The Weakerthans, will release his first full length solo album, entitled Provincial, this January 24th via Epitaph-Anti Records. The record contains newly recorded versions of songs from Samson's previous two acclaimed EPs, "City Route 85" and "Provincial Road 222," alongside a collection of beautifully evocative new tracks.

Provincial travels four routes woven into the prairie landscape of Manitoba, the Canadian province where Samson lives. It finds familiar landmarks and forgotten ones; it mines the precise and particular.

"Heart of the Continent," describes the sense of loss and despair that haunts the former site of a Winnipeg landmark, set against a backdrop of lilting country folk. The melodic rocker "When I Write my Master's Thesis," details a young academic's struggle to hold his life together as he tries complete his research of a forgotten institution in tiny Ninette, Manitoba, while "www.petitions.com/petition/riveronrifle/ " is a song in the form of an online petition to honor the valiant hockey player Reggie "The Riverton Rifle" Leach.

They are hymns for the departed and rockers for the living, songs about dying villages, Icelandic longing, snowplows, broken glass, satellites, hockey skates, and staff room romances. In creating these sonic portraits, Samson talked to relatives, friends and strangers; he visited archives, a tuberculosis sanatorium turned RV Park and a forgotten cemetery. The resulting album contains 12 fierce, tuneful, vivid stories united by a deep sense of place.

1. "Highway 1 East"

2. "Heart of the Continent"

3. "Cruise Night"

4. "Grace General"

5. "When I Write My Master’s Thesis"

6. "Letter in Icelandic from the Ninette San"

7. "Longitudinal Centre"

8. "www.ipetitions.com/petition/rivertonrifle/"

9. "The Last And"

10. "Stop Error"

11. "Highway 1 West"

12. "Taps Reversed"