The Tragically Hip announce ‘Saskadelphia’

Album features six previously unreleased tracks

Celebrated iconic band The Tragically Hip announce a new album, Saskadelphia, out Friday, May 21st via Universal Music Canada/UMe. The set is made up of six previously unreleased tracks written in 1990. Five recorded in that same year during the Road Apples sessions in New Orleans, and one live track, “Montreal (Live from The Molson Centre, Montreal, Dec 7th, 2000),” written at the same time, but for which the original recording is yet to be found.

With no shortage of material and higher ups at the American record label resisting the band’s call to release a double album, countless tracks were left behind on the studio floor. And so one album, Road Apples, heads out into the world, a rung on The Tragically Hip’s climb to legend status, while the rest of the tracks are tucked into boxes and moved out of sight, until now.

The record that stayed in the wings as Road Apples hit the stage. The title, a term coined by the band in a nod to the extensive touring they were doing in the early 1990s, was the original working title for Road Apples before it was rejected by those same label execs as being “too Canadian.”

From lead single “Ouch,” which greets listeners with the familiar roaring vocals of late singer and lyricist Gord Downie, to “Not Necessary,” a song whose fiery sound is layered with gentle and emotional lyrics – are pure, undistilled The Tragically Hip, as Rob Baker (guitar), Gord Downie (vocals, guitar), Johnny Fay (drums), Paul Langlois (guitar) and Gord Sinclair (bass) lay the groundwork for their unmistakable sound.

“I went ‘Wow’ when I heard ‘Ouch’ after all this time,” says Rob Baker. “We were a pretty good little band.”

After rediscovering the tracks they wrote more than three decades ago, The Tragically Hip knew they had to share the music with fans. Of these abandoned souvenirs from the past, Johnny Fay said, “We didn’t know what was there, so this meant baking them and listening to them as they were being transferred. Hearing them for the first time in 30 years was crazy.”

The Tragically Hip are set to receive the 2021 Humanitarian Award Presented by Music Canada at the 50th Annual JUNO Awards on Sunday, June 6th, in Toronto. Canadian Music Hall of Fame inductees and rock icons, Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson of Rush will present the band with the award. The award recognizes outstanding Canadian artists or industry leaders whose humanitarian contributions have positively enhanced the social fabric of Canada and beyond. The broadcast can be streamed globally on CBCmusic.ca/junos.

In celebration, the band will be the subject of a SiriusXM Town Hall on May 21st. The band will sit down for a live discussion and interview, premiering Saskadelphia on Friday, May 21st at 4 pm ET.

Hosted by SiriusXM Canada’s Jeff Leake, SiriusXM’s The Tragically Hip Summer Kick-Off Town Hall will showcase the band, live from their respective homes and virtually together again for their first public interview since June 2020. In an intimate conversation, Rob Baker, Johnny Fay, Paul Langlois, Gord Sinclair and Patrick Downie will reminisce about long weekends past, discuss their upcoming JUNO Awards performance with Feist, reflect on their 2021 Humanitarian Award, and share key insights into the making of Saskadelphia.

Fans can bring The Tragically Hip everywhere they go this Victoria Day weekend, as The Tragically Hip Radio will be taking over SiriusXM’s satellite station The Verge (ch. 173) from May 21-24 for a limited engagement. In addition to the Town Hall live event, listeners can tune in for music, interviews and recordings of past performances – including a previously unreleased live performance airing on Sunday, May 23rd.

  1. Ouch
  2. Not Necessary
  3. Montreal (Live from The Molson Centre, Montreal, Dec 7th, 2000)
  4. Crack My Spine Like a Whip
  5. Just As Well
  6. Reformed Baptist Blues

Buddy Iahn
Buddy Iahn

Buddy Iahn founded The Music Universe when he decided to juxtapose his love of web design and music. As a lifelong drummer, he decided to take a hiatus from playing music to report it. The website began as a fun project in 2013 to one of the top independent news sites. Email: info@themusicuniverse.com