With over 20 million records sold worldwide, multi JUNO Award-winning Canadian singer/songwriter Gino Vannelli is back with album #20 — available April 5th, 2019.
46 years following his debut release, Wilderness Road is Vannelli’s first studio album featuring all new and original material in over ten years.
Best known for his reflective and soulful chart-toppers like “I Just Wanna Stop”, “Living Inside Myself”, “Black Cars”, and “Wild Horses” — or as ‘the Canadian singer songwriter with a lion’s mane’ — his rabid fanbase around the world are eager to hear what Vannelli is working on now.
Wilderness Road is at once unexpected yet familiar, evolutionary yet home-sewn; with Vannelli playing most of the instruments throughout, the living legend and musical mainstay has added a touch of Americana to earlier influences of rock, soul, jazz, and even classical sounds all recognizable on his previous 19 releases.
“Combined with a more narrative approach to the lyrics, Wilderness Road is altogether a musical endeavour set apart from all others I have undertaken in my career,” he shares. “It’s filled with a host of stories I have kept close to my heart for the last five years.”
The song “Yet Something Beautiful” is just one example; with lyrics of “life is cruel there ain’t no denyin’, at times too heavy a cross to bear, and yet something beautiful, when love is there,” Vannelli credits his inspiration as a chance observation of gentle caregiving towards a disabled partner.
“I was in the coffee shop above the studio,” he recalls, “and about to sit down for lunch when I noticed a woman pushing a man in a wheelchair.
“They had entered the small bistro and took a space close to me. The man appeared mostly paralyzed and unable to speak coherently, and at times shook violently before getting a word out.
“Other than a sense of sorrow, what struck me deeply was the woman’s sincerity in her eyes. I sat and marvelled at her kindness and grace. To my mind, there went a real-life unsung hero. I wrote the song almost immediately afterwards.”
Wilderness Road is available April 5th, 2019
Gino Vannelli Canadian Tour Dates
April 24th @ Bluma Appel Theatre, Toronto
April 26th @ Place des Arts, Montreal
April 27th @ Place des Arts, Montreal
