EP 368 | Mariel Buckley releases New Album Strange Trip Ahead /Complete Canadian tour with Matt Anderson
Mulligan StewShow Notes
Americana singer-songwriter Mariel Buckley announces her just-released album – Strange Trip Ahead, out Friday, October 17, 2025, via Birthday Cake Records. It finds Mariel venturing into new sonic ground for her, embracing an indie-rock song box that leans away from her country and Americana roots. The album reveals a deep dive into themes of adolescent shame, secrecy, and queer longing. With complex songs that take the listener through the emotional turbulence of youth, crafting a listening experience that feels like floating in uncertainty, suspended one moment, crashing the next. Mariel begins a bold new direction with this Strange Trip Ahead. "I was itching to try something a little heavier than my previous stuff," she shares. "I wanted to move away from synths and keys in general, citing references from indie rock, pop music, and alt-country." The album offers an honest portrait of empty hotel rooms, long stretches of highway, and the quiet loneliness found in mundane rituals like pumping gas and loitering around with a bad cup of coffee. Almost Nomadland-like, it feels like a slice-of-life vignette; a glimpse into the less-than-glamorous underbelly of being a working artist. Our interview starts with talking about our favourite track from the album. We both picked the last track.... Lucky. (A complete gem.) It also includes the album title in the lyrics. Nashville Now - Builds slowly and gets darker with every bar and chord. Somewhere else, which mentions drinking a $13.00 wine Vending machine - glorious harmonies smothered in beautiful dark lyrics. "Dreaming and drowning, disdain and devotion to a career spent adoring travel and the limelight. Packing and unpacking. Feeling sorry for myself." Mariel calls these songs her most honest work to date. There is a glimmer of light, I hope you can find and shine on the corners of your mind. That feeling is too dark to bear. Hang on, buddy - the best is yet to come." Mariel starts a complete coast-to-coast tour with Matt Anderson Jan 24 in Glace Bay, NS and finishes in Victoria, BC March 2. (Feb 25 Calgary - Feb 26 Edmonton) @mariel_buckley www.marielbuckley.com
More from Mulligan Stew
Bruce Cockburn has spent more than five decades writing some of the most enduring songs in Canadian music, and on his new album, The Blood of Others, coming Oct. 16, he turns his attention to the songs that shaped him long before he wrote a single lyric of his own. The album gathers material written by others, tracing a musical lineage that stretches from the gospel and blues records he heard as a child in Ottawa to the folk clubs and coffeehouses where he first found his voice. "What began back in the 80s as a vague notion grew over time into a strong desire to put together a collection of material, written by others, that I found sticking to the edges of my musical landscape," Bruce explained. Few songs on the record carry the personal resonance of "I'll Be Seeing You." Bruce described hearing a version on the radio in the '90s, in the aftermath of what he called "a brief but heart-opening relationship," and mishearing a lyric that reshaped how he understood the song. "I thought that version ended with the line, I'll be looking at someone, but I'll be seeing you," he said. "That's not in the original lyrics. They only refer to the moon, but it hit me in a powerful way." That memory led him to give the song a rhythmic treatment inspired by "I Only Have Eyes for You." "The accumulation of these songs started in the 60s, before I'd even begun to try to create my own." He sings That's All Right, not Elvis' version but Arthur Crudup's. Yellow Dog Blues was the first song he ever sang on stage as himself. He tells us he was terrified" To honour Bruce and his legacy, we play covers of various Cockburn songs by Frazey Ford BN Ladies, k.d.lang Wonderful storytelling here, which is why I recommend the Mulligan Stew Podcast: The complete version of Bruce's Story
Amos Garrett. Guitarist, singer, trombonist, born in Detroit on 26 Nov 1941. Amos played lead guitar 1968-70 for Ian and Sylvia (appearing on their groundbreaking country-rock LP, Great Speckled Bird). Moving to Woodstock, NY, in 1970, Amos toured and/or recorded with Maria Muldaur, Paul Butterfield's Better Days, Todd Rundgren, Jesse Winchester, and others. His solo on Muldaur's 1974 hit 'Midnight at the Oasis' is considered a classic of its kind and is typical of the style that has been highly influential on other pop, rock and blues guitarists.
We have a total of 10 Guests. Nine of them come from the hot-rising Edmonton band Second Hand Dream Car. For the first time, all 9 members showed up to talk.
I lovingly think of Steve Dawson as the Swiss Army Knife of music. Player.Producer. Writer. Arranger. Mentor. Creator. Recording engineer. Specializes in guitar and pedal steel. Touring band member for Allison Russell's Birds of Chicago and Matt Anderson. First noticed Steve as half of Zubot and Dawson. Then long time producer / co-writer for Jim... The post EP 403 | Steve Dawson and the Volcano Brothers-New Album appeared first on Mulligan Stew.