Jeremy Dutcher Shares A Love Letter To His Indigenous Community And Their Endangered Language
New Single "Take My Hand" Out Now
Motewolonuwok Out October 6th On Secret City Records
NYC Show Sept 19 At National Sawdust, On Tour Across Canada This Fall
“There is no one making music like this” - NPR Music
Today, Jeremy Dutcher – the classically trained Two-Spirit song carrier, composer, activist, and member of Neqotkuk (Tobique First Nation) in Eastern Canada – shares “Take My Hand” the poignant third single off his new record, Motewolonuwok, to be released October 6th on Secret City Records. This bright new song comes after garnering praise and support from NPR Music, CBC Music, BBC 6Music, WNYC, KEXP, and more, for both previous singles “Skicinuwihkuk” and “Ancestors Too Young”.
“Take My Hand” is another offering from Jeremy sung in English – with lyrics written by Basia Bulat - and embraces the legacy and power of the intemporal love song as a piano ballad.
Inspired by a calling from Maggie Paul – an Indigenous Passamaquoddy elder, teacher and song carrier who has travelled around the world to share Wabinaki culture – who told Jeremy to “show the young people how to love again,” “Take My Hand” is meant like a prayer to share that love can renew all things, all relations, all histories. “A song first shared by an elder and lyrically crafted by a friend,” Dutchertells us, “this song has been a collective coming together.”
Reflecting on the multiple meanings of this song, Jeremy’s sister-in-law added another layer to his creation: “You’re not even singing to a person; you’re singing to the language.”
“Maybe this is a love song to language revitalization itself and all those working towards linguistic survival of Wolastoqey, and all indigenous languages,” concludes Jeremy.
Watch/listen to the new single/video for “Take My Hand”.
The video, directed by tranquilo; Pia Perez and Sylvain Chaussée, features Dutcher and honors Dancing Bear (Gayle Pruden) a Two-Spirit jingle dress dancer from the Anishinaabe nation. The video “is a 16mm visual poem, and celebration of Indigenous expression; past, present, and future,” Perez and Chaussée tell us. “A love song to the Wolastoqey language, and Indigenous languages across Turtle Island. Produced and shot, on Dish with One Spoon Territory.”
Jeremy adds: “Many thanks to all those who have held me and shown me how to love, the trans and Two-Spirit elders who have shown their light so that all the rainbow children may find their paths, return to the circle and our ways. You have always been medicine.”
Pre-order/Presave the album Motewolonuwok HERE.
Dutcher originally vaulted himself into the upper echelons of Canadian performance with his 2018 debut, Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa. Since winning the Polaris and JUNO Prizes, performing for NPR Tiny Desk, and collaborating with Yo-Yo Ma, Buffy St. Marie and Beverly Glenn Copeland, Dutcher returns with Motewolonuwok, a moving and radiant exploration of contemporary Indigeneity and his place within it, presenting his most expansive work yet. The new album also marks Dutcher’s first time writing and singing in English. A powerful invitation for collective healing and understanding, “Shared tongue is a beautiful gift, with a complicated reason,” Dutcher explains. These new English songs are also a way of singing directly to the newcomer, or settler, in their own language – a direct line of communication that seeks to platform his community’s stories of healing, resilience, and emergence to all that may hear.
Motewolonuwok heaves with dynamic orchestration and the inherent drama of grand piano, recalling a long line of artists who have turned the classical establishment on its head to deliver compositions that are doubly ecstatic and modern – luminaries such as Julius Eastman, Perfume Genius, Arthur Russell, Beverly Glenn-Copeland, and Merce Cunningham. More intimate and expansive than anything Dutcher has created before, Motewolonuwok hedges the line between storytelling and composition as both a transcendental protest record and an exploration of self. This is experimental pop as corrective medicine: a defiant, healing, and queer experience that fills any listener with power and wisdom.
Early Praises for Motewolonuwok
“"Ancestors Too Young” is an urgent rocker, sung from the perspective of a parent devastated by the loss of a daughter. Amid guitar squalls and jittery brushes on the drum kit, tastefully arranged strings by Owen Pallett offer touches of solemnity.” – NPR Music
“[Ancestors Too Young] is a powerful new prism through which the composer shines his light. His plaintive vibrato still reflects his opera training as he sings, […] but his howl eventually rises to a rock-inspired crescendo […]. It's an exciting new direction for the composer's upcoming sophomore album, Motewolonuwok, mixing art rock influences with orchestral swells and a jazz rhythm section.” – Exclaim!’s Staff Picks
“The song [Skicinuwihkuk] is tender and lyrical, but also takes flight on a wave of orchestral sound that amplifies the song’s emotional content” – WNYC “New Sounds”
‘“Skicinuwihkuk” is a moving piece” – CBC Music
Jeremy Dutcher tour dates:
September 19 – Lenapehoking - New York City, NY – National Sawdust
October 19 - wei wai kum - Campbell River, BC - Tidemark Theater
October 20 - lək̓ʷəŋən - Victoria, BC - McPherson Playhouse
October 21 - xʷməθkʷəy̓əm-Sḵwx̱wú7mesh-səlilwətaɬ - Vancouver, BC - Vogue Theatre
October 23 - moh’kinsstis - Calgary, AB - Bella Concert Halal
October 24 - amiskwaciwâskahikan - Edmonton, AB - Winspear
October 26 - misâskwatômina - Saskatoon, SK - TCU Place
October 27 - oskana ka-asastēki - Regina, SK - University of Regina Theatre
October 28 - wînipêk - Winnipeg, MB - Burton Cummings Theatre
November 8 - odàwàg - Ottawa, ON - National Arts Centre
November 10 - tiohtià:ke - Montreal, QC - Corona Theatre
November 11 - kepek - Quebec City, QC - Grand Théâtre de Québec
November 14 - wasokusegwom - Glace Bay, NS - Savoy Theatre
November 15 - epekwitk - Charlottetown, PE - Confederation Centre
November 17 - eqpahak - Fredericton, NB - Playhouse
November 18 - menahkwesk - St. John, NB - Imperial Theatre
November 19 - petkoatkwee'ak - Moncton, MB - Capitol Theatre
November 22 - kjipuktuk - Halifax, NS - St. Matthews
November 23 - mtaban - Wolfville, NS - Festival Theatre at Acadia
November 24 - kespukwik - Annapolis Royal, NS - Kings Theatre
November 26 - ktaqmkuk - St. John’s, NL - St. John’s Arts & Culture Centre
December 7 - haudenosaunee-anishinabewaki - St. Catherine’s, ON - FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre
December 9 - tkaronto - Toronto, ON - Massey Hall
Jeremy Dutcher online
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Secret City Records online