Canadian singer-songwriter Ken Yates has released his fourth full-length album, Cerulean today. Throughout the album’s eleven songs, Yates emerges from the depths of despair to recognize life’s imperfections and ultimately finds hope and acceptance. Listen to it now below.
Yates will be touring this summer across Canada and the U.S. highlighted by new co-bill dates with Stephanie Lambring (who is featured in his latest single, “Don’t Mean To Wake You”) announced this week. Yates will be supporting recent collaborator Kathleen Edwards at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Burlington, Ontario on August 9, as well as a festival slot on July 15-17 at the Home County Music and Art Festival in London, Ontario. Tickets to all shows are available HERE.
Cerulean meets Yates at his darkest and most vulnerable, as he transforms the pain of grief, fear and loss into an 11-track quest towards hope, light and peace. A crucial vehicle out of the depths of darkness and bitterness for Yates, Cerulean serves as a powerful reemergence filled with his signature remarkable vocal intimacy as well as a profound yet candid peek into the universal human experience. Along with producer and collaborator Jim Bryson, the LP the duo teamed up to create a hard reset, a painful look in the mirror–one that allows Yates the space to come to terms with life’s challenges and heal.
“Over the last 2 years, the songs from ‘Cerulean’ have been a refuge for me during an extremely difficult time in life,” shares Yates. “Around the same time as the pandemic arrived, my mother was diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic breast cancer, and given 7 months to live. It felt like life changed overnight, and it was a lot to process all at once.”
“The result was a wave of sadness, anger, anxiety and bitterness at a level I hadn’t experienced before, and suddenly there was nothing to distract me from it,” Yates continues. “While I didn’t know it at the time, these songs were my way of moving through the stages of grief. From my fear about the state of the world (The Big One, The Future Is Dead), to the sleepless, anxious nights (Don’t Mean To Wake You), to working through my anger and sadness (Small Doses, Half-Clenched Teeth, Grocery Store), and finally, to recognizing the abundance of good in my life (Best of the Broken Things, Good Things).”
Now, two years later, Yates is able to find peace, calm and refuge when listening back to the body of work that carried him through such extraordinary anguish. “When I listen back to these songs now, I can hear myself processing these feelings in real time, and trying to find small moments of peace. Cerulean as a whole is ultimately about searching for that calm/peace, however fleeting it may be.”
Ken Yates Summer 2022 Tour Dates
June 8 – The Ark – Ann Arbor, MI
June 11 – Pumpstock – East Lansing, MI
June 18 – Bayfield Town Hall – Bayfield, ON w/ Jadea Kelly
June 19 – Bowie’s – Smiths Falls, ON
June 20 – The Red House – Kingston, ON
June 22 – The Cameron House – Toronto, ON
June 23 – Aeolian Hall – London, ON w/ Abigail Lapell
June 25 – Mills Hardware – Hamilton, ON w/ Abigail Lapell and Jenny Berkel
July 15-17 – Home County Festival – London, ON
July 27 – Concerts On The Common – Londonderry, NH w/ Brian Dunne
August 9 – Royal Botanical Gardens – Burlington, ON supporting Kathleen Edwards
September 27 – Southgate House – Newport, KY co-bill with Stephanie Lambring
September 28 – SPACE – Evanston, IL co-bill with Stephanie Lambring
September 29 – 20 Front Street – Lake Orion, MI co-bill with Stephanie Lambring
October 1 – The Timber House – Rochester, NY co-bill with Stephanie Lambring
October 5 – World Cafe Live – Philadelphia, PA co-bill with Stephanie Lambring
October 6 – The Spire Center – Plymouth, MA co-bill with Stephanie Lambring
October 8 – Cafe 939 The Red Room – Boston, MA co-bill with Stephanie Lambring