The Yukon-born, B.C.-based bluesman has released a new album
“It’s a blues album, because I’m a bluesman. It’s an electric album with horns and all that stuff, so it’s a little different than a lot of the records I’ve put out, which are more acoustic.”
Brandon Isaak
The Yukon will always be home to Brandon Isaak. Though the three-time Juno Award–nominated blues troubadour has been based down on Vancouver Island for much of his career, he was born and raised and has cut his teeth up north. With a new record titled Walkin’ With The Blues, released in June, Isaak’s fall tour will see him return to Whitehorse in October.
“It’s a blues album, because I’m a bluesman,” Isaak says of his new release. “It’s an electric album with horns and all that stuff, so it’s a little different than a lot of the records I’ve put out, which are more acoustic.”
Incorporating new elements into his music was a way for Isaak to further his musical journey, as he felt making records that were too similar to previous works of his would feel stagnant. The new music is still blues, naturally, but within the blues there are many styles to be explored, and Isaak aims to cover as much ground as he can through his far-from-over career.
“My last album (2023’s One Step Closer) was all New Orleans stuff, like tubas and washboards and clarinets, so another different style of blues,” he explains. “This new one’s a little more straight-up, traditional electric blues.”
The most-recent of Isaak’s three all-time Juno Award nominations was for One Step Closer in the Blues Album of the Year category. “It’s always exciting,” he says. “It always brightens your day.” When the last call came from Isaak’s publicist, telling him his record was nominated, the musician was on vacation in Mexico. “It means you’re doing something right,” he says.
Because the blues is an old traditional form of music, Isaak is always searching for new ways to modernize it and create contemporary music drawn from influences of decades long past. Experimenting with different chords, drum beats and even drum machines, along with modern lyrics that delve into current world issues, are all methods he employs on his newest album.
“There’s always love as the strong thread running through it,” Isaak says of his lyrical content. “But I talk about other things, too, like the state of the world and those sorts of things too. I like to do that, but on the other hand, art is something that it’s nice to sometimes put on and forget about the world and all its problems, so you don’t want to inundate them with hard world issues too much. You want them to relax and have fun and not have to stress out. There’s a fine line.”
By the time a new record actually sees the light of day, it’s already old hat to Isaak, he admits. Though it feels good to share with the world whatever he’s been working on, he doesn’t like to dwell on it.
“I put it out, and I’ve started on my new album,” he says. “That album’s been out about a month, and it’s yesterday’s news to me. Maybe the rest of the world is playing it and that’s good stuff. That’s what I want … I want them to do that, but I’m back in the trenches and I’m working on a new album. I don’t really sit and enjoy it too much, but when you’re mixing the records and stuff like that, you tend to hear the songs thousands of times over—so, really, if you never hear it again, you’re pretty much okay with that.”
Luckily for Isaak, he says it is different hearing new songs in a live setting when performing them. With a string of shows slated through the summer and fall, mainly across B.C. and Alberta, Isaak will perform a mix of festival slots and headlining concerts.
“We do play these songs, and that’s a different story when you’re playing them live versus listening to a recording,” he says. “It’s always fresher.”
Isaak doesn’t go out on the road these days—not nearly as much as he did in his younger years. The bluesman says in his 20s he would be on tour for months on end, often playing around 20 shows a month and still barely scraping by financially.
“That’s one of the nice things about youth is that you’re nuts and you’re ready to take on anything,” he says. “We like to put tours together now that go a couple days, or maybe four days and then some days off. We’re not in a situation where we have to be out there working our butts off to make a living. We can pull it off with six or seven shows a month and have a comfortable lifestyle.”
Back in the day, Isaak usually found himself playing bars, pubs, breweries, restaurants and other types of small venues where he would provide background noise to accompany the conversations of uninterested patrons.
“Nobody gives a crap about you when you’re in the corner,” he says. “It’s hard, and it was wearing on me. I was getting tired of that.”
Isaak credits his wife and manager, Cindy Mae Isaak, with pulling him out of that scene and opening the doors for better opportunities.
“In order to take the next jump, you have to drop the small bars, breweries, restaurants—all that—out of your repertoire and just start focusing on bigger gigs,” he continues. “That was a big jump for us when we figured that out, and it’s a scary jump as well. All of a sudden, you’re quitting your day job and trying to push to a higher tax bracket.”
Isaak’s fall touring schedule will also see him making his way back up to Whitehorse for a Halloween show at Marsh Lake and an evening at the Old Fire Hall the following day on Nov. 1. Isaak will be joined by celebrated local musicians Lonnie Powell and Dave Haddock. The shows will benefit the Ukrainian Canadian Association of Yukon.
“There’s 680 [Ukrainian people] up there in the Yukon, and they don’t plan on staying,” Isaak says. “They’re grateful to be there, but they are also looking forward to heading back to Ukraine, come the right time, so we’re gonna help them raise some money, and they put money into ambulances and medical supplies … It’s quite the story in itself.”
Isaak, himself, has some family history in Ukraine, with ancestors of his murdered and run out of the country in the 1920s.
“It’s replaying itself now, so I’m happy I can help do anything I can,” he says. “Like my wife says, people want to help but they don’t know how, so we’ll be doing these two shows in Whitehorse and we’ll be donating money from our CDs towards Ukraine.”
As far as coming back to Whitehorse goes, Isaak is thrilled to be visiting his hometown and catching up with old friends and family.
“I always love coming home,” he says.
Visit Isaak’s website at brandonisaak.ca to keep up with his music and touring schedule.
