Canadian folk legend Ken Whiteley
releases his 37th album, 'Keep Going,' out now via Pyramid Records,
distributed worldwide by Distrokid. A multi-instrumentalist, producer,
and composer who has been at the heart of Canadian roots music for more
than six decades, Whiteley is a Mariposa Festival Hall of Fame inductee,
a Genie Award winner for Best Original Song in a Canadian feature film,
and the recipient of Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Maple Blues
Awards and Folk Music Ontario. With 'Keep Going,' he delivers his most
thematically unified and deeply felt work in years - a record that draws
from the oldest wells of blues and gospel to speak directly to the
moment we are all living through.
The album's origin is
characteristically Whiteley: in February 2025, he slipped on ice and
fractured a bone in his ankle. Unable to walk for a month, he sat down,
picked up his guitar, and began writing. "Keeping going in these
troubled times is an expression of powerful determination and survival,
tempered by the recognition of earthly transience," he reflects. "I
immersed myself in old blues and gospel tunes and that message kept
coming up. May listeners also find the inspiration to keep going." The
result is 12 tracks - seven originals, four classics that speak urgently
to today, and one co-write with Eve Goldberg - recorded at Casa Wroxton
Studio in Toronto with engineer Nik Tjelios and mastered by Harris
Newman at Grey Market Mastering in Montreal.
The breadth of Whiteley's
musicianship across 'Keep Going' is remarkable even by his own
extraordinary standards. He sings and plays acoustic guitar, resophonic
guitar, mandolin, Hammond organ, piano, mandola, mandocello, harmonica,
string bass, electric bass, and washboard across the 12 tracks - joined
by a cast of trusted collaborators including vocalist Ciceal Levy,
drummer Bucky Berger, his brother Chris Whiteley on harmonica and
cornet, and bassist Gord Mowat. One of the album's most moving moments
is 'Reaching Higher,' featuring the late vocalist Betty Richardson -
Jackie Richardson's younger sister, who passed away in 2018 - on a demo
track Whiteley returned to and knew was worth sending into the world.
Guest vocalists Eve Goldberg and Pat Patrick appear on the closing
co-write 'At The End Of The Day,' a twilight meditation on transition
and the voices we hear at the edge of night.
The closing track's lyrics carry the
album's spirit with quiet grace: "I hear something calling me / taking
me far away / I hear something calling me / at the end of the day." That
sense of listening for something beyond the noise of the present moment
runs throughout 'Keep Going.' From the lead track 'Everybody's Got to
Be Tried' - built from a phrase remembered from Appalachian banjo legend
Frank Proffitt and performed on a 1928 National guitar - to the
mandolin-quartet arrangement of Noah Lewis's 1929 jug stomper 'Going to
German,' Whiteley draws unbroken lines between the music of the past and
the challenges of the present. "It's heartbreaking that the systemic
imprisonment of young people of colour is still with us," he writes in
his notes. "What I embrace in this song is the affirmation that 'I'll be
back some old day.' Keep going."
The stature Whiteley brings to this
record has been earned across one of the richest careers in Canadian
music. Beginning his public performances at the age of 14, he has shared
stages and recordings with Pete Seeger, John Hammond Jr., Blind John
Davis, Stan Rogers, and Tom Paxton. He changed the course of Canadian
children's music through his work with Raffi, Fred Penner, and dozens of
others, and has frequently collaborated with his brother Chris Whiteley
and niece and nephew Jenny and Daniel Whiteley. He has written more
than 400 songs, which have been covered by more than a dozen artists,
and has released four albums since 2020 alone - including CFMA award
nominees 'Long Time Travelling' and 'So Glad I'm Here.' These days, as
he notes with characteristic wit, he is as likely to be performing at a
yoga ashram as a bar, drawing on the full storehouse of blues, folk, and
gospel to make music that brings people together.
TOUR DATES:
March 28 - Guelph, ON - Guelph House Concerts
April 4-5 - Val Morin, QC - Concerts & Workshop, Sivananda Yoga Ashram (Easter Weekend) - sivanandacanada.org/camp
May 1 - Ottawa, ON - Gil's Hootenanny
'Songs of Protest, Songs of Hope,' First Unitarian Church, 30 Cleary
Ave., 7:00 p.m. - gilshootenanny.ca
May 2 - Toronto, ON - Hugh's Room
Live - 75th Birthday Bash and Album Celebration with Bucky Berger, Ben
Whiteley, Jesse Whiteley, David Wall, Ciceal Levy, Pat Patrick -
Tickets: showpass.com/ken-whiteley-75th-birthday-bash
May 16 - North York, ON - Afro Metis Anthem Peace Concert, Don Heights Auditorium, 18 Wynford Dr., Suite 103, 2:00 p.m.
May 23 - Caledon, ON - Whole Village Eco Village Concert
May 28 - Burlington, ON - Retired Teachers' Luncheon Concert
June 7 - Orangeville, ON -
Orangeville Blues & Jazz Festival, Orangeville Opera House with Ben
Whiteley, Bucky Berger, Ciceal Levy - orangevillebluesandjazz.ca
June 23 - Roseville, ON - Detweiler Meeting House Concert, 3445 Roseville Rd., Ayr
