Over his career, beloved folk troubadour John Wort Hannam has released eight albums. He has toured extensively and has won a passel of awards, including four Canadian Folk Music Awards. However, in 2021 he thought it all might be over.
“It was scary because I’d spent the last 25 years of my life playing music,” he says. “I identify so much as a singer; I get a lot of joy out of singing. And I was thinking that all my songs had dried up.”
It turned out that it was COVID restrictions affecting him more than it was a full creative breakdown. Once post-pandemic life launched again, the songs came back.
“It was a huge relief because I wasn’t 100% sure that was going to happen,” he says.
Driving is his best creativity booster, he says, but almost any movement helps. “That Zen place in your brain, that’s where I go when I drive. I really start to work things out song-wise. Even when I’m stuck writing a song at home I get up and walk around the block.”
Now he has a whole collection of new songs. They’ll make up his next album, tentatively titled Past Lives and Ex-Wives.
“I don’t have any ex-wives,” he laughs. “I only have one wife. I’m still married, but I have a song by that title and I like the song a lot.”
Hannam has a new plan for this album, his ninth.
He says he’s always done it “the wrong way,” where he records an album and then starts playing songs for audiences.
“And the songs always change. So we’re going to spend the summer playing the new songs. Then when the fall comes around and we go into the studio all the little glitches will have been worked out.”
Hannam is in the midst of an Alberta tour and recently played a concert in a very western prairies locale – a grain elevator.
“It’s a neat place to play. Obviously there’s a lot of room inside a grain elevator but it’s all up,” he laughs. “Sixty seats max is what we had in there.”
“It’s such an iconic thing for the prairies and there aren’t that many around. I was born in the UK. I was almost nine when we came to Canada,” Hannam says. “I’d never seen anything like those before. I was always kind of mesmerized by them. It’s kind of cool now that I’m older, and I’m Canadian, that I get to play in them.”
Hannam is playing music festivals all summer with his trio, fiddler Scott Duncan and upright bass player Jason Valleau.
They have Alberta shows coming up in Black Diamond, Pincher Creek, Wainwright and Sundre. Check out his website for all the information.
“Hurry Up Kid” from John Wort Hannam’s 2021 album, Long Haul:
