Just Words

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Cat No: CSCCD1176

Release Date: 01 May 2020

Label: Continental Song City

Packaging Type: Digipak

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 8713762011765

Genres: Americana Singer Songwriter

Description
"Nobody's gonna save you. Nobody's gonna make the way for you. Nobody thinks it matters what they say," Canadian singer/songwriter Lynne Hanson sings in the title track off her new album, Just Words, knowing full well that songs can actually do all of those things... and have, for her. From the jazz and bluegrass of her formative years to the iconic songwriters of her adulthood, music has been Hanson's way of walking through the world and working through her emotions.

So, yeah, Just Words includes a lot of sad songs. That's what happens when an artist lives their life and tells their truth as a "heartbreak poet." Still, this isn't just another break-up album. Hanson's vision is broader and deeper than that, as she peers into bullying in "Just Words," acceptance on "Clean Slate," forgiveness on "Higher Ground," and fate in "Such a Random Thing." An award-winning songwriter who has toured around the world, Hanson recognizes that we're all complex beings capable of living dichotomies, but heading for the high road and working toward forgiveness — of ourselves and others — are keys.

That same ethos fits into one of the very personal concepts that Hanson has wrestled with which lies at the heart of the album, in "Long Way Home." With eight years of sobriety under her belt, walking home from a pub or a party, alone with her doubts and demons, is a story the Ottawa native knows all too well. "I got sad songs on my mind, the broke-down heartbreak kind," she sings in the tune tucked neatly between a bunch of those very same heartbreakers, some of which were inspired by the experience of going into a relationship not really seeing the other person or, even worse, hoping to change them, as documented in "True Blue Moon," "Hemingway's Songbird." and elsewhere.

Her seventh studio album since 2006, Just Words marks something of an artistic departure for Hanson, who purposely tapped producer Jim Bryson (Kathleen Edwards, Skydiggers) to push and pull her outside her comfort zone. Contoured and textured,the result is a more powerful sound than on efforts past, more Steve Earle than Gillian Welch, with a vulnerable underbelly.

Time and again with Just Words, Hanson evidences that, though another person can't, songs can save you. Songs can make the way for you. And, with songs, it does matters what they say.
Tracklisting