Brandon Isaak Releases Walkin’ With The Blues – A Uncooked, Soulful Journey into Traditional Electrical Blues
Brandon Isaak, the Whitehorse-born bluesman identified for his gravelly voice and deep respect for custom, returns with Walkin’ With The Blues—his most genuine and electrified blues album to this point. Recorded dwell off the ground with minimal mics, classic gear, and a soul soaked within the style’s deepest roots, the report is a love letter to traditional blues—gritty, emotional, and defiantly old-school.
“That is probably the most straight-up blues report I’ve ever made, and I couldn’t be extra happy with the way it turned out,” Isaak shares. “I needed to make a report with sturdy lyrics, soulful taking part in, and 0 tolerance for wanking—and I feel I’ve achieved this.”
The album marks Isaak’s first time producing and engineering on his personal, a feat he describes as each a problem and a dream realized.
The lead single and title observe, “Walkin’ With The Blues,” captures Isaak’s hallmark songwriting fashion—equal elements heartbreak and hard-won knowledge. Lyrics like “With the blues as my companion / down this lengthy laborious highway / we’ll carry on walkin’ / and share this heavy load” present Isaak’s emotional vary, drawing listeners deep into his world of misplaced love and gritty perseverance.
Themes all through the album stretch from life and like to demise, intercourse, and even homicide—all delivered with what Isaak calls “gusto and fervour.” Every observe is infused with the classic tones of electrical blues, channeling the spirit of legends like T-Bone Walker and Ronnie Earl.
“I’ve all the time dreamed of constructing an electrical blues album that captures the texture of the data I grew up on,” he says. “This one’s for the guitarists I worshipped as a child.”
The report was made with Isaak’s touring band, The Saints of Swing, on Vancouver Island.
“We constructed this in a single room with ribbon mics, chilly beer, and coronary heart,” he says. “Each observe performed was actual, unfiltered. The drums, the guitars, the texture—it’s all there, sincere and alive.”
That honesty interprets to each observe, from rollicking shuffles to mournful ballads.
A real blues craftsman with over 37 years on the highway, Isaak has toured throughout three continents and earned accolades, together with a 2024 Juno nomination for Blues Album of the Yr. His efficiency resume contains 13 European excursions and 4 nominations on the 2023 Maple Blues Awards, the place he was acknowledged for Male Vocalist of the Yr, Album/Producer of the Yr, Songwriter of the Yr, and Acoustic Act of the Yr.
To have fun the discharge of Walkin’ With The Blues, Brandon Isaak will embark on an intensive tour throughout Western Canada, bringing his new album to life with performances filled with storytelling, humour, and coronary heart. Tour stops embrace:
- July 8 – 39 Days of July – Duncan, BC
- July 12 – Massive Home Live performance – Most important Island, BC
- July 13 – 39 Days of July – Duncan, BC
- July 24 – Parksville Museum – Parksville, BC
- July 25 – Fort Langley Jazz Competition – Fort Langley, BC
- Sept 4 – Blues Barn – Leduc, Alberta
- Sept 5 – Massive Home Live performance – Purple Deer, Alberta
- Sept 6 – Badlands Amphitheatre – Drumheller, Alberta
- Sept 11 – Mackie Home Live performance – Coldstream, BC
- Sept 12 – Dream Café – Penticton, BC
- Sept 13 – Vibrant Wine Winery – Kelowna, BC
- Sept 20 – Osborne Bay – Crofton, BC
- Oct 7 – Oak Bay Recreation Centre – Victoria, BC
- Oct 18 – Cobblestone Music Venue – Cobblestone, BC
- Oct 31 – Marsh Lake – Yukon
- Nov 1 – Previous Firehall – Whitehorse, Yukon
- Nov 21 – Hermann’s Jazz Membership – Victoria, BC
Whether or not performing solo or backed by a powerhouse band, Isaak’s reveals are rooted within the blues custom—one half celebration, one half confession, all coronary heart. “I’m not making an attempt to reinvent the blues,” he says. “I’m simply doing what it’s all the time achieved—telling tales, sharing truths, and holding the fireplace burning.”
Hello Brandon! Good to fulfill you! Care to introduce your self to the readers for these not aware of your music?
I used to be born in Whitehorse, Yukon, on a polar bear farm. In 2000, I moved to Vancouver, the place I performed with Kenny “Blues Boss” Wayne in addition to The twisters. I went out alone in 2011 and have launched 7 solo albums. We (spouse/supervisor) now dwell on Vancouver Island out within the woods, and we couldn’t be happier. The music scene is powerful, and the character is overwhelming.
You describe this as your most “straight-up blues report”—what did you’re feeling you needed to strip away or lean into to get there?
Making a blues report appears elusive and laborious to do. Very often, you find yourself listening to principally rock-infused blues. An excessive amount of distortion on guitars, close-mic drums bashing at full tilt, bass participant overplaying and peddling the 1 track after track. I understand there may be room for all kinds of blues, and reinventing it’s a good factor, too, however my aim was an actual blues report, and I feel I’m fairly shut. I really like understated guitar solos which are about feeling and soul, not exhibiting off your wanking workout routines.
That is your first time absolutely producing and engineering an album your self. What did that independence disclose to you about your sound or course of?
It was so enjoyable and rewarding to provide and engineer this album myself. I discovered the entire course of faster, cleaner, and general higher takes as I may work at my tempo and lay down a observe at 3 within the morning if I felt it. I used principally ribbon mic’s and tried to mic the drums with minimal mic’s for a roomy sound. Drums inform the story of the studio, and my story is natural, sincere, understated, and humble. I wish to preserve it easy.
A number of the themes—love, intercourse, demise, even homicide—stroll a positive line. How do you resolve how far to push the darkness in your storytelling?
Actual life is actual life; in the event you can watch it on the information, you’ll be able to hear it on a report. I discover that when themes and lyrics get darkish, humour helps equalize the track. I don’t all the time add humour as you hear in my track (What’s This World Coming To). I wish to push the listener a bit, both with intercourse themes or laborious life and even demise.
You say you’re not reinventing the blues—simply holding the fireplace burning. In a world filled with change, what retains that fireside alive for you?
I really like the blues and, like a shark, I really feel it’s completely advanced right into a glossy, aerodynamic power of nature. By merely holding the themes present, we get the complete impact of a extremely advanced artwork type prepared to maneuver our souls. I’m doing simply that; traditional music performed by the most effective musicians and singing in regards to the world we dwell in immediately.