Rain from the Eastout June 12, 2026track listing:In Search of Winter
The Homeless Theater
Madness, such
Holy Fool
Ballydoo
Trapdoor
Dead Dwarf
Rain from the East
New Elvis
Arthurian Evensong
Sworn to Secrecy
Now I BeginDan Fortin bass
Jean Martin drums
Patrick O'Reilly guitar
Justin Orok guitar
John Southworth vocals pianoNick Johnston guitar on "Arthurian Eversong"produced by Jean Martin and John Southworthsongs by John Southworthphotography by Cory Bruyea
design by Jake Monroeavailable digital/CD on Sud de ValeurSDV009
Rain from the East comes just seven months after 2025's The Red Castle, an ornate dissertation on grief and magic that threaded together early music and modern instrumentation. Conversely, Rain from the East takes a more subversive turn. It’s a standard Southworthian plot device, in keeping with the Toronto songwriter’s contrarian modus operandi. “You have learned to live without,” begins opener “In Search Of Winter," a sinister romp with nods to prog-rock, jazz and the Irish Otherworld. "The Homeless Theater's" art-pop with its cast of underworld characters, follows. This unbleached, live-off-the-floor recording - assembled by longtime producer Jean Martin (The Weather Station, Tanya Tagaq) - finds Southworth hunched at a grand piano, sleeves rolled up, alongside some neutral angels - Dan Fortin on bass, Martin on drums, and the guitars of Patrick O’Reilly and Justin Orok. Mastodon’s Nick Johnston shows up to contribute to the Rachmaninoff-cloaked spell of “Arthurian Evensong”. This is as heavy and off the cuff Southworth has ventured. No overdubs, no fourth wall. The Song is still High King, the bygone spirits of Tin Pan Alley’s golden age having long been distilled into an estranged folk-art. And like some lone landscaper in a far-off graveyard, the songs on Rain tend to the grass and the Dead. It’s the 19th century still. The Irish famine never truly left ("Ballydoo") and Flanders Field is right there ("Sworn to Secrecy"). The Red Castle’s medievalism and otherworldly adventure have lingered, turning more contorted - fisher kings, oyster-women, shoemaker-seers, holy fools, specters walk among us. The Wasteland is nigh. Elvis is Arthur. In the rising waters, an oar-less boat appears. We proceed from Nashville to Derry, Mackinaw to Museum Island. What is Time? Era? Pay no attention to such artifice. Lay back and relish the topsy-turvy, synchronous song-realms of John Southworth. It’s a small world after all.
September 15, 2026 -- House of Miracles, Cambridge, Ontario, CANADASeptember 18, 2026 -- Tranzac Main Hall, Toronto, CANADA
