This album is about facing your fears, standing in the pain, and living with courage, boldness and joy. The record is full of some of my time-honoured messages: connection with the land, empowering the people, the beauty and draw of the north.
But it is also about things that scare me- suicide rates of our people, racism, the unending suffering and beauty of life. It is also, for the first time and in an honest way- about healing. True healing is not about just the absence of pain or addictions, although those are significant- it is about celebration, it is complicated, it is about weaving the fabric of the years of your own life into a beautiful blanket to hold you and ground you. It is about letting go of expectation and opening new eyes on the world around you.
Track Listing:
1. Rolling Thunder (4:37) 2. Hard Ground (3:31) 3. K’eintah Natse Ju (4:39) 4. One Thing (4:27) 5. Falling Stars (4:55) 6. Space (4:41) 7. Let It Roll (4:21) 8. North Star Calling (4:42) 9. We Are Here (4:19) 10. Yake Gotine (3:44)
Credits:
All music and lyrics written by Leela Gilday copyright 2019. Except for “Hard Ground” by Leela Gilday and Jadea Kelly copyright 2016. Produced, Engineered and Mixed by Hill Kourkoutis Recorded at The Lair (Toronto, ON) Except Drums Recorded at Lincoln County Social Club (Toronto, ON) Engineered by John Dinsmore Mastered by Phil Demetro at Lacquer Channel (Toronto, ON)
Musicians
Lead Vox, Acoustic Guitar: Leela Gilday Bass, Upright Bass: MJ Dandeneau Drums: Tony Raybould Guitars, Keys, Programming, Support Vox: Hill Kourkoutis Guest Artists: Tanya Tagaq (Throatsinging), Lane Arndt (Guitars), Jason Burnstick ( Weissenborn Guitars), Rick Fines (Guitars), Raven Kanatakta (Guitars), Anthony Wright (Keys), Debashis Sinha (Percussion, Kinley Dowling (violin, viola), Cris Derksen (cello), Damhnait Doyle (support vox), SATE (support vox) Friends Choir: Tiffany Ayalik, Tamara Podemski, Shawna Caspi, Greyson Gritt, Krystal Thompson, Lacey Hill, Mike Celia, Amanda Rheaume, Marty Ballentyne Dene Drums: (Recorded at Spiritwalker Studios, Courtesy of Gho-Bah Collective) Leroy Betsina, Gordie Liske, Ernie Goulet, Lawrence Nayally, Deneze Nakehk’o
Adeline Vital “Love Hymn” (beginning of “Space”) courtesy of Adeline’s family, and CBC North recording “Dene Yene- Dene and Metis Music of the Western Arctic”
Additional Soundtrack recordings made by Leela Gilday in Deline, Northwest Territories in 2003.
