New & Upcoming Canadian Albums: Cuff The Duke, SUUNS, Wild Rivers and More

The album release calendar gets very busy in the fall, and some major artists delivering new music in the weeks ahead.

Those with albums out those week also include country-rocker Devin Cooper, jazz artists Mis Blandine with the Caza Jazz Band and D.D. Jackson and Montreal-based French-Dominican composer Thélonius García.

This week, acclaimed alt-country band Cuff The Duke are also back with Breaking Dawn, their first new album in 10 years. Leader Wayne Petti has worked the better part of that time as an artist manager for renowned acts like The National, Owen Pallett, Broken Social Scene, and Jennifer Castle. "I struggled with the idea of working with incredible and inspiring artists in that capacity and still being an artist in my own way. I finally realized that the only thing stopping me was ME," he says.

Also this week, another long-running indie rock band, Montreal's SUUNS, are back with the new album The Breaks.

Those announcing dates of upcoming new albums include Quebec alt-rockers Les Dales Hawerchuk, Calgary art-rockers Emblematics, Toronto folk songsmith His His, adventurous Montreal singer-songwriter Marlaena Moore, Wild Rivers and Blue Moon Marquee.

Platinum-selling roots-pop trio Wild Rivers are on a serious roll. Just three months after the release of their acclaimed album, Never Better, they announced today (Sept. 6) that a new companion album, Better Now, will be released on October 18 via Nettwerk Music Group. The news is accompanied by a brand new track, "What Kind of Song," which showcases the band's signature mix of strong vocal harmonies and memorable melodies. "On the first record, the songs contain raw, absolute and instinctual feelings," Wild Rivers say. "In many ways, Better Now is the afterglow of this...Both projects make up the full spectrum of who we are. Better Now is just the moodier, misunderstood one."

Many dates on the group's current extensive North American tour are already sold out. Wild Rivers tour Europe and the U.K. in Nov., followed by a sold-out Dec. 6 show at History in Toronto. Itinerary and tickets here.

Also this week, Juno-winning, British Columbia-based indie blues duo A.W. Cardinal and Jasmine Colette, best known as Blue Moon Marquee, announced the Sept. 27 release of a new record, New Orleans Sessions.

A mix of energetic originals and covers of such legends as Leadbelly and Memphis Minnie, the album was recorded in the musical mecca that is the Big Easy, with BMM setting up at Bigtone Studios with some top local players and engineer (and harmonica player) Big Jon Atkinson. It was recorded in live off the floor fashion, and the band notes that “These two afternoon recordings were a fine pleasure to experience," the band says. "The musicians we had the good fortune to play with have style for miles and know how to have a good time all the while. We all sat in one room together and played the music in the truest form."

The duo’s previous album, Scream, Holler & Howl, won a Juno for Blues Album of the Year and they dominated the 2023 Maple Blues Awards with four major wins. Blue Moon Marquee have October shows in Alberta and B.C., followed by a Nov. 7 concert at Toronto's TD Music Hall. Dates here. Here's a taste of the new record.

August

28: Ghostkeeper, Cipayak Joy (Victory Pool Records)

30: Dan Mangan, Being Elsewhere Mix CD

30: Kobra Paige - Like No Other

September

6: Hansom Ēli, Sip (The Vault)

6: Cuff The Duke, Breaking Dawn (Cardinal Records)

6: Michael Scott Dawson, The Tinnitus Chorus (We Are Busy Bodies)

6: Adonis Bosso, Wait Till Summer

6: Mis Blandine with the Caza Jazz Band , Renaissance

6: D.D. Jackson, Poetry Project

6: Terry Donaghue, Looking For Redemption

6: Mojo Minefield, Watch Your Step

6: Thélonius García, Marche Nocturne (night walk)

6: SUUNS, The Breaks (Secret City)

6: Bob Sumner, Some Place To Rest Easy

6: Devin Cooper, Good Things: Deluxe Edition

6: Mo Kenney, From Nowhere

9: ASKO, S/T (Dine Alone)

13: Colin Stetson, The love it took to leave you (Envision Records)

13: The Fretless, Glasswing (Birthday Cake)

13: Teon Gibbs, The Calm Before

13: Dear Rouge, Lonesome High (Pheromone Recordings/Cadence Music Group)

13: Brooke Stilla, k bye

13: Sarah Davachi, The Head As Form’d In The Crier’s Choir ( Late Music)

13: Michael Sarian, Live At Cliff's Bells (Shifting Paradigm Records)

13: Sven Gali, Bombs and Battlescars

13: Flore Laurentienne, 8 tableaux, (Secret City Records)

13: Nemahsis, Verbatim

13: Paloma Sky, Hold On To Me

13: The Devil's Sons, Now and at the Hour of Death

13: Joel Plaskett, One Real Reveal

13: Snotty Nose Rez Kids, Red Future

13: Chastity - Chastity

16: The Meringues, Pavlova's Dog

19: ASKO, S/T (Dine Alone Records)

20: Golden Feather, Release

20: Sunset Rubdown, Always Happy to Explode

20: Alex Henry Foster, A Measure of Shape and Sounds (Hopeful Tragedy)

20: Kim Beggs, Beneath Your Skin

20: Ontarians, More How It Is

20: Molly Annelle, Junebug (604 Records)

20: Virginie B, Astral 2000

20: Spitty, Motherland

20: JJ Wilde - Vices

20: Ron Korb, Global Canvas

20: Craig Robertson, Running The Other Way

20: Jesse Waldman & Marc L'Esperance, The Shimmering Divide

20: Howard Gladstone, Crazy Talk

20: Nelly Furtado, 7

27: Leif Vollebekk, Revelation (Secret City Records)

27: Goldie Boutilier, The Actress ( ONErpm)

27: Sharon, Lois & Bram, Elephant Show Stoppers! (Elephant Records Inc./Red Brick Songs)

27: Julian Taylor, Pathways (Howling Turtle, Inc.)

27: Bryn Roberts, Aloft(Elastic Recordings)

27: Tea Fannie, It's All Love

27: Andy Colonico, Daytime Broker

27: Mustafa, Dunya(Arts & Crafts)

27: Contrived, Addicted to Sadness (LHM Records)

27: Bryn Roberts ft Matt Penman and Quincy Davis, ALOFT (Elastic Recordings)

27: Tia Wood, Pretty Red Bird

27: Eddy Ruyter, Waves (Heart Dance Records)

27: Blue Moon Marquee, New Orleans Sessions

27: Michael Bernard Fitzgerald, Horizon Lines

October

4: Mia Kelly, To Be Clear

4: Devarrow, Heart Shaped Rock (Paper Bag Records)

4: Christo Graham, Music For Horses (We Are Busy Bodies)

4: The Low Sixes, The Oshawa Tree ( Forge Again Records)

4: Emblematics, Removal

4: Caribou, Honey (City Slang)

4: Charlie A'Court, San Palarino

4: Chris Gostling, Forest City Town Country

11: Klô Pelgag, Abracadabra (Secret City Records)

11: The August Arrival, Hillsides

11: Jadea Kelly, Weather Girl

16: Jane's Party, The Best of Wild in the Woods Vol. 2

18: Twin Flames, Hugging the Cactus

18: The Free Label , Songs for Sienna (Westwood Recordings)

18: Nicky Lawrence, Ugly Black Woman (Gypsy Soul Records)

18: Sean Davis Newton, Bird Brain

18: Nap Eyes, The Neon Gate (Paper Bag Records)

18: Shawn Mendes, Shawn

18: Wild Rivers, Better Now (Nettwerk Music Group)

25: Simbo, SOUNDSORCERER VOL.2

25: Victime, En conversation avec (Mothland)

25: Ron Sexsmith, Cobblestone Runway & Retriever (limited edition vinyl & Cd reissues)

25: Lia Kuri, Motherland

November

1: Jeremie Albino, Our Time in the Sun ( Good People Record Co./Easy Eye Sound)

1: Sarah Neufeld / Richard Reed Parry / Rebecca Foon, First Sounds (One Little Independent/Envision Records)

1: Jennifer Castle, Camelot (Solstice Radio)

1: No Codes - Usual Suspects

1: OMBIIGIZI, Shame (Arts & Crafts)

1: SHEBAD, Music is the Answer

1: The Henrys, Secular Hymns and Border Songs (Bandcamp)

8: Les Dales Hawerchuk,Attaque à cinq (Bravo)

8: The Tragically Hip, Up To Here (box set)

8: We Are Wolves, title TBA

8: Yoo Doo Right (Mothland)

8: Les Dales Hawerchuk,Attaque à cinq ( Bravo)

15: Alvvays, S/T -10th anniversary vinyl only reissue

15: Marcus Trummer,From The Start (Gypsy Soul Records)

15: His His, EP, Good Gold Cassette (Victory Pool Records)

December

5: Carmen Braden, A Hard Light

6: Lubalin, haha, no worries (Cult Nation)

13: Menno Versteeg, Why We Run ( Royal Mountain Records)

January

17: Marlaena Moore, Because You Love Everything (Session/Bonsound)