My Father's Son

If you travel 315 km west from Sudbury, 706 km south-east from Thunderbay along the Trans-Canada highway you will find yourself in Sault Ste. Marie, the hometown of My Father’s Son singer songwriter Mark Kulmala. If you’re familiar with Northern Ontario, My Father’s Son paints a knowing image of its unique geography through expressive and vivid lyrics imbued with emotion and personal experience. Putting poetry in motion, the band delivers a colourful and intimate sound to listeners that is nothing short of a cinematic journey.

This past summer, the band set out to produce a stripped down and intimate set of recordings that remained true to their live sound. “Heart of Wood” combines Mark Kulmala’s acoustic guitar and textured vocals with the cascading vocals of Joelle Westman (2016 Polaris Prize longlist nominee, member of Georgian Bay), and violin accompaniment from Paul Meadows (previously of The Beauties, Uisca Beatha). This 9 song compilation, recorded live-off-the-floor, delivers the intimacy of a campfire song-telling, paying homage to the band’s folk roots and Kulmala’s Northern Ontario upbringing. Surely a surprising combination, Kulmala’s folk-rock, motown-inspired past (Mountain of Wolves, The Allens), Meadow’s celtic influence, and Westman’s bilingual musical trajectory contribute to a unique and evolving collaboration that is nuanced and full of surprising inflections.

With “Heart of Wood” on their sleeves, My Father’s Son embarks on a Canada-wide 2016-2017 tour, delivering an eclectic bouquet of small town tales. The album’s themes of fleeting innocence, love’s lost and found, determination, and the simple beauty of the landscape are sure to resonate with listeners.