LeQ’a:mel First Nation artist Patrick Anthony has released a new single from his upcoming album.
“Freedom Road” made its live debut at the Mission Folk Music Festival on July 23 and is currently available on Spotify and Apple Music.
The track is from his upcoming sophomore album and draws inspiration from Canada’s history.
The song’s title shares a name with a road that connected the isolated Shoal Lake 40 Reserve in Manitoba with Winnipeg.
In 1919, the Shoal Lake reserve was moved. It was cut off from access to Winnipeg’s clean water and food supplies.
“Nearly 100 years later, a road was finally built. Nearly 100 years of pain and suffering while the rest of Canada flourished and grew,” Anthony said in a news release.
Anthony wrote and recorded “Freedom Road” because he was inspired by the Shoal Lake story. The single features Anthony’s Americana/folk and country-rock musical style.
“The actual freedom road only fixes part of the problem, as it is estimated 73 per cent of reserves in Canada currently are under water advisories,” Anthony said. “Accountability and reconciliation is still desperately important but holding on to despair or anger, in my view, is not the solution. The song ‘Freedom Road’ is a message to all. Every person has the ability to stay resilient and move forward through hardship and struggle. Slow progress, is still forward progress.”
According to the news release, Anthony has been awarded grant funding through the First People’s Cultural Council to produce a video for Freedom Road with filming commencing this month.
@dillon_white
dillon.white@missioncityrecord.com
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