“ ORDINARY LIFE” FEATURING HARMONY FROM ROSE COUSINS OUT TODAY
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Ken Yates this week releases “Ordinary Life”, a “B-side” track following up his June 2022 album Cerulean. Produced by Dan Ledwell and featuring vocal harmony from Rose Cousins, the track finds Yates seeking “joy in the mundane.” Of the track Yates notes, “I wrote this song about searching for joy in the mundane. I know a lot of us had to adjust to a different pace of life over the last few years. When I stopped the forward motion of constantly being on the road, I found it jarring at first. I think without that forward motion I felt like I wasn’t getting anywhere, but after some time sitting in it, I learned it was the opposite. A lot of the things I was busying myself with were simply a distraction from doing the work to figure out what I wanted out of life.”
Yates continues, “I learned a lot about myself during that time. I learned I didn’t really like where I lived, so I moved. I learned that career accomplishments only gave me a brief amount of joy, so I started looking for it in other parts of my day. I learned that saying you’re “too busy” shouldn’t be worn as a badge of honour, it means you aren’t prioritizing things you’d like to be doing. And ultimately I learned that a lot of happiness can be found in the ordinary.”
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“Ordinary Life” follows Yates’ earlier 2023 single release, “Fairweather,” the first of the Cerulean B-sides released this year. Premiered in The Bluegrass Situation, “Fairweather” is about “what happens to relationships when someone puts their dreams ahead of the people who love them. Ambition is what drives us to get up every day, but if we don’t nurture our relationships with friends, family, partners, etc., they may not be there for you in your darkest moments.”
These two singles follow up Yates’ acclaimed fourth album Cerulean, which came out in June 2022 via Soundly Music and was recently nominated for Contemporary Album of the Year and Contemporary Singer of the Year at the Canadian Folk Music Awards. “Ordinary Life” is the second of a series of “B-sides” Yates will be releasing this spring.
More about Cerulean:
"It’s another lyrical vessel of yearning and emotional reckoning matched up with strummed acoustic guitar, further setting the scene for what Cerulean has in store." - FLOOD
"Cerulean is more astral than backroads, a soundscape that gives Yates room to ruminate, approaching the concert hall atmospherics of The War on Drugs, Andy Shauf, and Big Thief." - The Creek 100.9
“Yates has now asserted himself as one of Canada’s most unique folk artists with a true knack for effective songwriting.” - Canadian Beats
"An enchanting song of acceptance and resolve, Ken Yates’ “The Big One” is a soothing and stirring apocalyptic lullaby that finds refuge in the face of life’s fragility." - Atwood Magazine
"Ken has earned a strong reputation as a bona-fide composer who combines his emotionally charged storytelling with some incredible and unforgettable melodies.” - Great Dark Wonder
Cerulean meets Yates at his darkest and most vulnerable, as he transforms the pain of grief, fear and loss into an 11-track quest towards hope, light and peace. A crucial vehicle out of the depths of darkness and bitterness for Yates, Cerulean serves as a powerful reemergence filled with his signature remarkable vocal intimacy as well as a profound yet candid peek into the universal human experience.
Over the last decade, Ken Yates has solidified himself as a prolific musician, combining heartfelt lyricism, genuine authenticity and hypnotic guitar strums. After studying at the Berklee College of Music, Yates released The Backseat EP in 2011, followed by his full-length debut Twenty-Three in 2013. He won the Colleen Peterson Songwriting Award in 2014 for his song "The One That Got Away" and released his second album, Huntsville, in 2016, produced by Jim Bryson. By 2017, Yates was making waves in folk with his poignant songwriting, winning the awards for Canadian Folk Music Award for both Songwriter of the Year and New Artist of the Year. Now, with a fresh perspective and renewed sense of self, Yates brings honesty, growth and profound peace to his latest work, Cerulean. Nonetheless, Cerulean feels like a hard reset on Yates’ art and artistry. Reuniting with producer Jim Bryson, the album firmly steps into indie folk and alternative territories – he cites Big Thief, Andy Shauf, and The War On Drugs as a few of his inspirations.
READ THE FULL BIO HERE
LISTEN / SHARE "DON'T MEAN TO WAKE YOU" FEAT. STEPHANIE LAMBRING
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