BRADEN LAM’S DEBUT LP, THE CLOUDMAKER’S CRY, OUT APRIL 11, 2025
WATCH / SHARE “HURRICANE SEASON” HERE
BUY / STREAM “HURRICANE SEASON” HERE
PRE-SAVE / ORDER THE CLOUDMAKER’S CRY HERE
“Welcoming Vancouver-based singer Michaela Slinger onto the track for an old-fashioned duet, the two sing about heartbreak and reconciliation while pushing through the toughest of times and coming out strong on the other end.The two soft-spoken vocalists prove to be a great match for each other, blending their tones together as they tentatively venture requests to start taking the slow steps to fully opening back up emotionally.” RANGE on “Wide Open”
“Wide Open" has a classic country feel reinforced by haunting pedal steel and the harmony singing of Vancouver’s Michaela Slinger, who co-wrote the tune with Lam in Nashville. Lyrically it digs deep, probing a challenging time in a relationship and the warm and poignant vocals of Lam deliver the message skillfully.” Billboard on “Wide Open”
"Braden Lam's inviting voice rings out over gentle guitar and vibraphone on ‘Beautiful Neighbourhoods’, a timeless single that vibrates with warmth and longing." - CBC MUSIC
"Crafts an expansive but intimate sonic world for us to lose ourselves in" - Earmilk
"Calling to mind the happiest takes by Ben Howard or Tim Baker" - The Coast Halifax
Ferociously bowed fiddle lurks underneath anxious climate fears in the urgent, driving “Hurricane Season”, the fourth and final single from Braden Lam's debut LP The Cloudmaker's Cry, due April 11, 2025. The new track follows album singles “Beautiful Neighbourhoods”, which climbed to #7 on the CBC Music Top 20, “Highway Jesus”, and “Wide Open”, a duet with Vancouver’s Michaela Slinger. The celebrated Nova Scotia songwriter has also been recently named as one of 8 semi-finalists in SiriusXM’s 2025 ‘Top of the Country’.
Showcasing new depths to his roots-Americana sound and a knack for expressing observations universally, Lam takes his lived experience through a natural disaster and closely examines the human nature of desire and envy in “Hurricane Season”.
“This song was born during Hurricane Fiona, an intense post-tropical cyclone that hit the East coast of Canada in September of 2022. I was on tour in Europe and following closely with the news and social media buzz back home. First the toilet paper and chip aisles get cleared out at the grocery stores, then school and work gets cancelled, then the power goes out and everyone’s collective anxieties feed into each other online until the last phones die and the internet quietly waits for the storm to pass.”
“I’ve experienced my share of hurricane seasons in the past decade of living in Halifax, they’re no joke, and being away from my loved ones during this one gave me a new perspective to explore comparisons between the hurricane and the internal struggles we all face. The song begins by recognizing how connected we all are to each other, to the universe, to nature and all of its mood swings. No one at birth is marked safe from dealing with their mental health, or addiction, or a search for meaning, and at the same time no one is ever alone through these storms of life.”
In another collaboration with director Griffin O’Toole, the pair continue to build on a world of nostalgia and surrealism viewers have come to expect from previous music videos such as “Wide Open” that features a larger-than-life cowboy hat riding on a pickup truck. Not an easy act to follow, yet “Hurricane Season” plays perfectly into this primary vision, bringing us from Atlantic Canada to the most unlikely of places - the middle of the Arizona desert.
“I’m running from a hurricane that has destroyed my home in the beginning, but no matter where I go, destruction still follows in my path. I slowly realize that this is my own doing, the storm I am trying to outrun is inside of me, and in order to heal and find what I’m longing for, I have to go back and face it.”
“If we took better care of ourselves and our environment, maybe the world would be less angry at us all the time”
WATCH / SHARE “HURRICANE SEASON” HERE
BUY / STREAM “HURRICANE SEASON” HERE
MORE ABOUT THE CLOUDMAKER’S CRY
The Cloudmaker’s Cry is Lam’s debut full-length album, and he means album in the classic sense: 10 considered and thoughtful folk songs, meticulously arranged and painstakingly sequenced, meant to be played on a turntable in a single sitting, whiskey optional. Though barely 27, he has lived the life of a much older man—with years of touring, entrepreneurship, and marriage already accounted for—and this collection of songs reflects lessons learned earlier than most, about time and love and the world.
WATCH / SHARE “BEAUTIFUL NEIGHBOURHOODS” (MUSIC VIDEO) HERE
BUY / STREAM “BEAUTIFUL NEIGHBOURHOODS” HERE
WATCH / SHARE “WIDE OPEN” FT. MICHAELA SLINGER HERE
BUY / STREAM “WIDE OPEN” FT. MICHAELA SLINGER HERE
It was produced in Toronto by Eli Browning, a new approach for Lam, who made his previous three EPs with a host of producers across Atlantic Canada. The pair’s touchstones as they worked through a city springtime in a converted church studio were George Harrison, Neil Young, and other sounds from the 1960s and 70s: music that is lyric-forward and performed with folk instrumentation in analogue tones, resulting in a timeless singer-songwriter record.
This vibe carries through the entire package, from the tintype photographs of Lam to the images wrought in 35mm in the liner notes, to his charming video collaborations with Griffin O’Toole that combine nostalgia, surrealism, and camp into a distinct style of film. Each particular piece fits perfectly into the primary vision, creating something grand in its authenticity and comforting in its warmth.
Braden Lam is also preparing to hit the road in the US ahead of the album’s release. All dates are listed below and can be found HERE.
WATCH / SHARE “HIGHWAY JESUS” (MUSIC VIDEO) HERE
BUY / STREAM “HIGHWAY JESUS” HERE
Photo Credit : Paul Atwood // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES
Album Art // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES
THE CLOUDMAKER’S CRY TRACKLIST
01 The Hold
02 In The Narrows
03 Hurricane Season
04 Cowboy Boots ft. Lassie Fai
05 HighwayJesus
06 Beautiful Neighbourhoods
07 Wide Open ft. Michaela Slinger
08 Bigger Flame
09 Obsolete
10 Sore
BRADEN LAM PERFORMANCE DATES
February 28, Portland ME, Geno's Rock Club
March 02, Portsmouth NH, The Press Room
March 04, Cambridge MA, Cantab Underground
March 05, New York NY, Pianos Upstairs | New Colossus Festival
March 06, New York NY, Sour Mouse | New Colossus Festival