Eamon McGrath celebrates the beauty of winter at the height of summer with his hauntingly gorgeous new single Anthem For An Ontario Child — premiering exclusively on Tinnitist.
One of several outtakes and rarities gathered together on his latest independent release Lust Never Sleeps, Vol. 5 — officially available Friday via Bandcamp and his own Cassettes Records label — Anthem For An Ontario Child is “a summertime nod to the nostalgic, cold, melancholic beauty of pond hockey,” says McGrath. “Featuring Kingston songwriting duo Tiny Horse and Alberta-based bluegrass icon Lesley Schatz, this track is brand new, as yet unreleased.”
It’s not alone: Along with the shivering and shimmering Anthem, the superb LNS5 includes the darkly ringing country-rock track The Civil War, the loping fuzz-buster Man Of Steel, the smouldering folk-rock number Frank Slide Interpretive Centre, the acoustic yearning of Long Kiss and so-called Glasgow Versions of A Dizzying Lust standouts August and Teenager.
For those keeping score at home, Lust Never Sleeps, Vol. 5 is the relentlessly prolific singer-songwriter’s 14th (yes, 14th!) full-length offering of the year, which began with the release of seven new albums on Jan. 1. As the title makes clear, it’s also the fifth followup to his March release A Dizzying Lust, featuring songs written during an autumn 2022 visit to Japan.
The previous four titles in the series contained live recordings from six months of shows in support of the album — a long, winding road that took the Alberta-raised, Windsor-based McGrath across Europe twice and wove its way through Ontario multiple times. In contrast, Vol. 5 consists of studio outtakes, re-arrangements and new music from recording sessions for A Dizzying Lust and the 2019 studio set Guts. The other songs on Vol. 5 feature drums by Pete Landi of Single Mothers and Greg Millson, formerly of Great Lake Swimmers.
As always, the unstoppable and indefatigable McGrath will be promoting the release with more live shows, including three festival appearances and a brief weekend run with the Winnipeg-born, Berlin-based songwriter Oldseed:
Aug. 11 – Collingwood, ON @ Duntroon Highlands
Aug. 18 – Gravenhurst, ON @ Dockside Festival
Aug. 19 – Windsor, ON @ Dropped On Drouillard
Sept. 1 – Amherstburg, ON @ Musicland*
Sept. 2 – Windsor, ON @ Casa del Roberts*
*w/ Oldseed
Listen to Anthem For An Ontario Child above, hear the rest of Lust Never Sleeps, Vol. 5 below, and just try to keep up with Eamon McGrath on his website, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
