Tim Baker and All Hands / Eric Slick

Tim Baker is a prolific, wild-eyed dreamer. In 2022, Baker returned with The Festival, a sonic embrace, a call-in for love, and a cry-out for connection. Baker wants us to bring our pain and suffering, and align it all with melody. The Festival is a kaleidoscopic view in these complicated times. Baker is best known as the writer and front man of Hey Rosetta!, a Juno-nominated, Polaris-shortlisted, and multi-award-winning band based in St. John’s, Newfoundland. With over 15 years of performing their high-energy spectacle in stadiums, clubs, theaters, and major festivals all over the world, Hey Rosetta! called it quits in 2017. Baker has since transitioned from being the leader and songwriter of a major indie rock band, and ascended to a profound songwriter and producer. His solo LP, Forever Overhead (Arts and Crafts), garnered him a Juno nomination for Songwriter of the Year, three East Coast Music Awards (and several nominations), and a Polaris long-list. He released The Eighteenth Hole Variations EP in 2019, the Side Door Sessions LP in 2020, and that same year, he released the Survivors EP.

Blissfulness is at the core of Wiseacre, the strikingly purifying sophomore record from Eric Slick. Wiseacre is a location, literally. It’s the place he married the light in his life, Natalie Prass, and titling the record after it is an attempt at bottling the euphoria of his wedding day. The record isn’t just about the joy that comes from a loving existence, blossoming out of a new relationship, it’s also about the hard work that it takes to get to that place. “I’ve always been known as somebody who is on the sidelines,” says Slick, seeking to step out of the shadow of his previous roles. The majority of his time has been behind a drum set, spending the last decade rounding out the industrious outfit Dr. Dog, and as of late, touring as a newlywed alongside his wife. Ironically, the two met on Valentine’s Day at a Dr. Dog show before Slick had even joined the band. Slick’s previous solo work—his debut, Palisades; the orchestral Bullfighter; and Out of Habit, a John Fahey-inspired EP, peddled as dollar-bin ephemera—established the framework for the most significant project of his career thus far.