New Album 'Trench Songs' Coming in November!

Trench songs were written by frontline soldiers during WW1. Essentially protest songs, they were often parodies of well-known tunes. We’ve rewritten new melodies and music for these words, in order to more readily access the emotional content of the lyrics, and to continue folk music’s long tradition of reshaping songs over time -- the same way soldiers reshaped these songs in the trenches.

It’s the most  stripped down album we’ve done. Other than percussion, the recording was performed by our 4 current touring members, a lot of it live off the floor.

During the pandemic, where war metaphors abound, these songs have given us much-needed perspective around hardship, the sacrifice of previous generations, and, mostly, what vulnerable communities can be forced to endure at the hands of the government and military in a crisis. We think about these soldiers when we sing, and hope you will too.

New Live Video for WW1-era Song, "Take Me Back to Old Ontario"

Branching off of themes from our very own Brendan McLeod’s new solo show ‘Ridge’, The Fugitives have been re-imagining WW1-era soldier songs; updating melodies and music to wartime lyrics so that they might resonate in a new way with a modern audience. In honour of Remembrance Day, here’s the first one, recorded live in a SaltSpring Island cabin. It’s called Take Me Back to Old Ontario with lyrics written in 1915 by Frank E. Balson.

(Directed by Piet Suess).

Branching off of themes from Brendan McLeod's new solo show 'Ridge', The Fugitives have been re-imagining WW1-era soldier songs, updating melodies and music to wartime lyrics so that they might resonate in a new way with a modern audience. In honour of Remembrance Day, here's the first one, recorded live in a SaltSpring Island cabin.

Thanks For A Great 2018! Wuddup, 2019?

Happy New Year!

It was a busy and stupidly fun year for all of us here at Fugitopia. We were honoured to be nominated for a Western Canadian Music Award (Songwriter of the Year), a Canadian Folk Award (Vocal Group of the Year), a German Record Critics’ Circle Award (Roots Album of the Year) and for Album of the Year from Blues and Roots Radio International.

We also got to tour almost all of Canada, including some very far-reaching places in Ontario, like Red Lake and Sioux Lookout, as well as returning to old haunts in Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg and Western Canada. We returned to Germany for the fourth time and did our first ever show in the Czech Republic at a festival outside Prague.

Needless to say we’re grateful to get to do what we do and we thank everyone who supports our music and keeps coming back to our shows after all these years. 2019 will be a little lighter for us on the tour front as we focus on insular activities like writing and recording but look for us on the summer 2019 Canadian folk fest circuit, we hope to make it out to a few.

With love and gratitude and a glass to the heavens,

xo The Fugitives