Lion’s Head musician Stephen Woeller wants alt-folk music fans to try it up here!

Wiretone Records is pleased to announce the release of woe11er: try it up here on August 8 – available at stephenwoeller.ca and wiretonerecords.com and on better streaming services everywhere. 

“Try It Up Here is a call out to anyone flirting with the idea – that everything might have to change – starting with where you live,” says Stephen Woeller. Woeller and his partner/band mate Trace Mackay moved to Lion’s Head from Toronto six years ago to find a slower, more thoughtful, more connected lifestyle than the Big City living had to offer. 

“The Saugeen (Bruce) Peninsula is a very special place,” says Woeller. “The limestone cliffs, Georgian Bay, the Bruce Trail, the people we’ve met and become friends with…this environment is so conducive to making music. The opportunity to hike the trail and reflect on the state of the world – whether it’s migrating birds, the ubiquity of cell phones, the state of the climate or the devastation of local monuments like the Lion’s Head Lighthouse – and bring these ideas straight into the studio is a huge gift.” 

Try It Up Here was recorded and produced at Terrapin Studio in Lion’s Head and at Monastereo Studios, Guelph, by Woeller and Andrew McPherson over many months in 2021, sometimes in person, often over Zoom and with an array of handpicked musicians including Tyler Wagler on bass guitar, Adam Bowman on drums, Chris Bartos on pedal steel, violin and electric guitar, Lisa Patterson on Accordion, Trace MacKay on harmony vocals. McPherson filled in the gaps brilliantly on keys, synths, bass, vocals and programming. 

“I couldn’t be happier with how things turned out,” says Woeller. “It was a joy to record with Andrew McPherson in the producer’s chair and the amazing musicians who shaped the songs on the album. And It’s wonderful to have the support of our local record label – Wiretone Records –  to help get the album out into the world.”

You can see Woeller live with backup band Half Way North featuring Trace Mackay, Dominik Franken and Dan Corcoran. “It was never an option to pull all the tricks we used in the studio into a live setting,” says Woeller. “Instead, we assembled 3 strong voices, a violin, a piano and a glockenspiel to deliver vast, harmonically rich versions of the quirky songs that make up Woeller’s new album.

Upcoming live shows include: Harbourside Stage, Lion's Head, Aug 26, 2022, Heartwood Concert Hall, Owen Sound, August 27, 2022, and Earthbound Gardens, Red Bay, Aug 28, 2022