New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Just a few weeks ago, Tim Baker, frontman and principle songwriter of Hey Rosetta! announced his debut solo album, Forever Overhead. The album was announced alongside the breezy lead single "Dance." The beautiful official video for "
Dance" is revealed, directed by Tim's long-time friend and fellow Newfoundlander Jordan Canning (Schitt's Creek,
Baroness Von Sketch, Suck it Up), speaking to how increasingly disconnected we are from nature and the people in our lives, even when they are right in front of us. Shot in the
Natural History Museum in Ottawa, nature is frozen in time, enclosed behind protective glass and two solitary characters exist in their work and in isolation from each other, until a beautiful moment. "For me this has always been a song sung from someone held apart - convalescing maybe," notes Tim "from someone dreaming of being alive and close to love and something important." Tim and Jordan were awarded the first ever MVP grant for the production of the video.
"Tim and I both grew up in Newfoundland," says director Jordan Canning. "As teenagers we spent summer nights skipping stones on middle cove beach, driving up to Southside Hills to explore the cliffs, and playing spotlight in the woods, our flashlight beams scanning the trees for our friends. Nature was always within easy reach. Years later, we both find ourselves living in Toronto. Here, you can go days without stepping foot on a patch of grass. Everywhere you look there is concrete and steel and plastic and people. And when you look away it is usually to stare down at a phone or computer screen"
"
Dance" features soft and buoyant piano chords, 70s pop style instrumentation and a piercing guitar riff. Like Forever Overhead (it's title taken from a short story by
David Foster Wallace) as a whole, Tim brings beauty and hope into listeners' lives and gives us 11 songs that centre on kinship, connectivity, and modern alienation. It shows us that Tim's blindsiding, raw and observational song-writing - that which was at the heart of the 12-year journey with his previous band, Hey Rosetta! and their multi-award winning and nominated career - is still as affecting as ever. When crafting the album, Tim drew from '70s songwriters, like
Jackson Browne and Randy Newman, whose music filled his childhood home and from his contemporaries (Feist, Bahamas, Andy Shauf). Produced by Marcus Paquin (The National, Local Natives, Timber Timbre, The Barr Brothers), Forever Overhead blends piano ballads with ebullient folk-rock tracks featuring Liam O'Neill (Suuns), Ben Whiteley (The Weather Station), as well as Mishka Stein & Joe Grass (Patrick Watson). Forever Overhead is set for release on April 19, 2019 via Arts & Crafts, is available now for pre-order.
Tim's upcoming tour will start with two hometown dates in St. John's on release day, April 19 and 20, and continues with now three Toronto shows, several sold out venues and a recently upsized Vancouver venue, and follows through to June in California. All dates follow below and are on sale now.
TIM BAKER - HEADLINE SHOWS 2019:
04/19/19 St. John's, NL Holy
Heart Theatre* (second show added)
04/20/19 St. John's, NL Holy
Heart Theatre*
04/23/19 Toronto, ON Great Hall* SOLD OUT
04/24/19 Toronto, ON Great Hall* (second show added) SOLD OUT
04/25/19 Toronto, ON Great Hall* (third show added)
04/26/19 Ottawa, ON Bronson Centre*
04/28/19 Quebec City, QC Maelstrom* (new date)
04/29/19 Fredericton, NB Wilmot United Church*
04/30/19 Moncton, NB Tide and Boar Ballroom*
05/02/19 Charlottetown, PE ECMAs
05/03/19 Halifax, NS St. Matthew's United Church (second show added)* SOLD OUT
05/04/19 Halifax, NS St. Matthew's United Church* SOLD OUT
05/07/19 Montreal, QC Le Ministère*
05/08/19 NYC, NY Rockwood
Music Hall
05/11/19 Brooklyn, NY Jalopy Theatre
05/13/19 Asbury Park, NJ
Danny Clinch Gallery
05/14/19 Vienna, VA Jammin Java
05/16/19 Boston, MA Cafe 939
05/18/19 Burlington, VT Higher Ground Showcase
05/20/19 Buffalo, NY Leopard Lounge at Town Ballroom
05/29/19 Edmonton, AB The Station on Jasper*
05/30/19 Calgary, AB Commonwealth Bar & Stage*
06/01/19 Vancouver, BC Commodore Ballroom* (venue change)
06/03/19 Seattle, WA Columbia City Theater*
06/04/19 Portland, OR The Old Church*
06/07/19 Los Angeles, CA The Hotel Cafe*
06/08/19 San Francisco, CA Hotel Utah*
*with
Charlotte Cornfield
FOREVER OVERHEAD Track Listing:
1) Dance
2) All Hands
3) Hideaway
4) Spirit
5) Strange River
6) The Eighteenth Hole
7) Two Mirrors
8) Pools
9) The Sound of the Machines
10) Our Team
11) Don't Let Me Go Yet.
