Tim Baker & All Hands present his new Christmas album Full Rainbow of Light, with special guests Villages

Tim Baker is on tour with full band, full sound & full hearts to bring his new Christmas record Full Rainbow Of Light to life. Juno Award nominated, Polaris Prize short-listed, ECMA-laden musician Tim Baker returns with a new album, Full Rainbow of Light. The record consists of twelve new songs, written by Tim – except for one blistering cover of “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” – and recorded in his hometown of St. John’s, Newfoundland. To call it a Christmas album is to cheapen the depth of the songwriting – these are masterful, original compositions that are set in the big feelings and high emotions of the holidays. Inspiration for this album stems largely from Tim’s connection to Newfoundland and the unique and deep way December hits there each year. In Tim’s own words, “Full Rainbow of Light is the first record I’ve made that really centers around a single concept throughout: the warmth, the nostalgia and the goodness of being home at Christmas. Through many themes and stories and sounds, these songs keep pointing back there, to my people and places and past, in Newfoundland & Labrador - to all the tradition and the change of it, the warmth and the winter, the hardship and the hope of it.” This album is the follow-up to 2022’s The Festival and its 2023 companion EP Along the Mountain Road. Those releases sent Tim on extensive international touring, both with his full band, All Hands, and as a solo artist, selling out some of Canada’s most acclaimed venues, including Massey Hall in Toronto. In many ways, Full Rainbow of Light is a bridge between his long love of expansive full-band energy, and the vulnerability, purity and maturity of his recent solo performances. While there is an obvious specificity to the album – set as it is at Christmas, in Tim’s own home and history, complete with traditional Newfoundland instrumentation strewn throughout – the authenticity of the work is something that transcends the specific and shines a warm welcoming light for everyone, everywhere. While Tim & the band will be presenting the new album, they’ll of course be playing much-loved Hey Rosetta! Christmas tunes, as well as crowd favorites from Tim’s own ever-deepening solo catalogue. And with Cape Breton’s Villages joining them, it’s liable to be a travelling East Coast Christmas party, full of new, artful, instant classics. Truly, not to be missed.

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On its new full-length, Dark Island, folk-rock quartet Villages marries metaphor to roots on 11 tracks that offer an experience meant to echo a visit to Cape Breton itself: Otherworldly, euphoric, sobering, celebratory, and reverent. The band – Matt Ellis, Travis Ellis, Jon Pearo, Archie Rankin – tapped the JUNO-winning composer and soundscapist Joshua Van Tassel (David Myles, Great Lake Swimmers, Fortunate Ones) as producer, stepping into Joel Plaskett’s Fang Recording for a whirlwind eight days. Van Tassel directed the band to play the songs fully live off the floor (three takes max) capturing the boisterous energy of Villages’ live performances and making the album a series of present moments strung together. The combination of Van Tassel (whose own work is largely instrumental and played on rare instruments) and Villages (the band has also made three indie-rock albums as Mardeen) results in a type of Celtic music that respects its heritage while taking sonic chances. Reviving the Cape Breton sound of their ancestry and mixing it with contemporary influences and instruments, Villages are an intriguing case study in cultural identity. Escaping the trad-inspired sounds in their younger days through their acclaimed indie rock band Mardeen, the group has assuredly found their way back to their roots. Their self-titled debut took a deep dive into the haunting and meandering melodies of the Cape Breton Highlands and presents them through atmospheric arrangements that recall the influence of groups like The War on Drugs and Fleet Foxes. Villages won Folk Recording of the Year at the 2019 Nova Scotia Music Awards. The group’s 2020 EP Upon the Horizon built on the unique sound of their debut and was mixed by Phil Ek (Fleet Foxes, Band of Horses, Built to Spill).

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