BRADEN LAM SHARES “HURRICANE SEASON” FROM UPCOMING LP

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

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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

BRADEN LAM ONLINE
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BRADEN LAM ANNOUNCES DEBUT LP, SHARES NEW SINGLE “WIDE OPEN”

BRADEN LAM’S DEBUT LP, THE CLOUDMAKER’S CRY, OUT APRIL 11, 2025

WATCH / SHARE “WIDE OPEN FT. MICHAELA SLINGER” HERE
BUY / STREAM “WIDE OPEN FT. MICHAELA SLINGER” 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”

"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

Photo Credit Paul Atwood: // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

Braden Lam meets the moment on The Cloudmaker’s Cry, an album that makes good on the promise of this indie-folk wunderkind, with music reminiscent of a bygone era set to lyrics pulsing with the urgency and anxiety of today. The titular Cry evokes many kinds—cries of joy, of sorrow, of protest, of rage, of grief—as Lam pushes his voice to new edges exploring these expressions, and then some. He hones in and drills down on the complexity of relationships, the mundanity of adulthood, and the lasting impact of history. 

Having already released album singles “Beautiful Neighbourhoods”, which climbed to #7 on the CBC Music Top 20, and “Highway Jesus”, today Lam is also sharing a new track “Wide Open”, a duet with Vancouver’s Michaela Slinger. The track, perhaps most deeply indebted to classic country on the album, is a heartbreaker in the Plant & Krauss way, detailing a hard time in a relationship on which Braden Lam regrets, and repents: ‘If you wanna try to forgive / I’ll be your window in the morning / Crack me wide open.’ Written by Lam & Slinger in Nashville after a chance encounter, the pair delicately explore the one percent of magic that remains through adversity, drawing us in closer and out stronger on the other side.

“My wife, Lassie Fai… (who also duets on an upcoming album track called ‘Cowboy Boots’)... got rushed to the hospital in early 2023 due to severe endometriosis, a terribly painful and understudied disease,” says Lam. “The sudden cancer scare and full hysterectomy for a woman in her 20s rocked our relationship really hard for that entire year. It was super stressful, we almost lost our business through the process and I regretfully carried on with an album release and tour overseas shortly after her surgery. I wasn’t the best version of myself, or the best emotional support in all the ways I could have been. I wrote the chorus as I was thinking about her and this whirlwind experience. ’Wide Open’ is an apology, a humble invitation to keep trying, and a sign to get closer in a moment that is trying to drive you apart. ‘I still think of you when you’re not just looking my way / I still love you too like it’s not just something we say’.”

The single arrives with another video from Lam and director Griffin O’Toole. “The idea for the music video came to me originally as a joke,” says Lam. “I had just seen Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City and was riffing on this funny concept in my head of a gigantic cowboy hat on top of a vintage pickup. I mentioned it to my friend Cameron Roberts, who is a talented carpenter, and he agreed to give it a go and built us the hat of my dreams! Griffin was very inspired by Terrence Malik films for the video treatment, and featured artist Michaela Slinger was on tour nearby this past November with a couple days off so it all just came together at the right time, and I truly believe we captured something special in this video that we will be proud of long into our careers. I’m so grateful to everyone involved.”

WATCH / SHARE “WIDE OPEN FT. MICHAELA SLINGER” HERE
BUY / STREAM “WIDE OPEN FT. MICHAELA SLINGER” HERE

Single Art // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

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

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.

WATCH / SHARE “HIGHWAY JESUS” (MUSIC VIDEO) HERE
BUY / STREAM “HIGHWAY JESUS” HERE

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 ONLINE
WEBSITE
INSTAGRAM
TIKTOK
FACEBOOK
YOUTUBE

BRADEN LAM IS A DISCIPLE OF PSILOCYBIN IN MUSIC VIDEO FOR NEW ALT-FOLK SINGLE "HIGHWAY JESUS"

BRADEN LAM’S  NEW SINGLE, “HIGHWAY JESUS” ARRIVES TODAY

WATCH / SHARE “HIGHWAY JESUS” (MUSIC VIDEO) HERE
BUY / STREAM “HIGHWAY JESUS” HERE

"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

Photo Credit : moosecanfly // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

Blending authentic songwriting with modern indie flare, Braden Lam (he/him) is forging the path to a new 21st century folk. Today, the young artist from Halifax is following up previous single, “Beautiful Neighbourhoods”, with a new trip titled “Highway Jesus”.

“I had my first psychedelic mushroom experience one summer on Prince Edward Island… It was extremely healing,” explains Lam. “I felt the earth and trees reaching out to hold me as I cried, and forgave, and just released and realised so many emotions. On the way home from that weekend our car broke down in rural Nova Scotia and we had to call a friend to come get us off the side of the highway… I wrote down ‘saved by a Highway Jesus in a pickup truck’ in my phone notes that day, a place I usually drop quick song ideas or lyrics. I grew up in a religious community and I was religious myself until my early 20s, so I was also fresh off processing that and just followed these different threads of my life until they led me to this story of someone that gets into a car crash as they try to escape their rural hometown… 

“The song ends with this sermon-style rant for why I left the church; ‘No I don’t need your eternity / I got textural energy / A worldly consistency / I was made for this’. I could no longer align with those values, the judgement, the whole living for some other life thing… when I had this current one to love and be fully present in.

“Honestly, with all this division and the way the world is heading right now, my bets are on magic mushrooms saving us all before religion ever does. ‘Oh my my I need some saving / I’m just another disciple of psilocybin.’

The song arrives with a trippy music video, directed and edited by Griffin O'Toole, which continues to explore the world of surrealism that was first introduced in the video for “Beautiful Neighbourhoods”. Here Braden is transported even further from reality via a magic portal to a field of dancing mushroom people. The idea for the video came to Braden from a roadside folk-art maze attraction on the South shore of Nova Scotia that is featured in the video.

WATCH / SHARE “HIGHWAY JESUS” (MUSIC VIDEO) HERE
BUY / STREAM “HIGHWAY JESUS” HERE

Single Art // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

Previous single, “Beautiful Neighbourhoods”, takes you on a nostalgic and cinematic journey through the winding streets of Germany as Braden Lam, a third generation Canadian, retraces his ancestral steps in this indie-alternative single. Braden recounts a ghostly encounter he had while on tour in Europe last year, one that prompted him to visit local archives and reconnect with the places and culture his grandparents left behind to start a new life for themselves in Canada. This friendly visit bridges an understanding between the present (listener) and a romanticised version of the past (ghost) leaving both wondering - ‘Would you seek me out in the wilderness / These modern times are killing us’.

Both singles were recorded within an old church in the West end of Toronto, marking a new and refined chapter of Braden Lam’s focused storytelling through organic and timeless sounds thanks to the help of producer Eli Browning (Spencer Krug, Sister Ray), mix engineer Braden Sauder (Luna Li, The Kount), and musicians such as Matt Kelly and Johnny 99 (City and Colour), Lauren Dillen (of Burs).

WATCH / SHARE “BEAUTIFUL NEIGHBOURHOODS” (MUSIC VIDEO) HERE
BUY / STREAM “BEAUTIFUL NEIGHBOURHOODS” HERE

MORE ABOUT BRADEN LAM
Lam has previously been nominated for Music Nova Scotia’s SOCAN Songwriter of the Year award and multiple East Coast Music Awards for Songwriter, Album, and Solo Recording of the Year. He’s been endorsed by RBCxMusic and Harmony Guitars, and has toured around the world including at FOCUS Wales, The Great Escape in England, Germany’s Reeperbahn Festival, in Ireland, Scotland, and across Canada. His music has garnered over 1 million streams to date and has been featured on editorial playlists, SiriusXM North Americana, and on radio shows across Canada, the UK, and USA. Braden is a passionate advocate for the environment and ambassador for global organization Music Declares Emergency.

BRADEN LAM ONLINE
WEBSITE
INSTAGRAM
TIKTOK
FACEBOOK
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