Sam Baardman is a well-known singer-songwriter and visual artist living in Winnipeg. His music reflects his searching and inquisitive spirit that expresses compelling truths about our deepest questions and our most difficult challenges. Fans of Sam appreciate his lyrical depth and superb, singable melodies. It’s no surprise that the Winnipeg Free Press described him as “one of the city’s strongest and most literate songwriters.”
Following the release of last year’s well-received comeback album, Marsh Radio, Sam returns with his fourth full-length recording, Athabasca. The album will be available on all streaming platforms and will be for sale directly from his website.
The Athabasca project began in 2022 when Sam was exhibiting and performing at a conference in Winnipeg he helped host called “Art, Activism and Advocacy”. There, he spoke to a scientist in attendance from Global Water Futures (GWF), a program that supports research scientists who are studying the effects of climate change on water systems. GWF had collaborated with environmental artists in the past, and with their support Sam spent two weeks last fall at the Coldwater Laboratory in the Rockies as well as northern Saskatchewan speaking with scientists about their climate-related work. Sam traveled with GWF scientists to their observatories atop mountains, deep inside alpine forests, up on a glacier, and onto the northern prairies.
“Spending time with these researchers was a life-changing experience. It really opened my eyes and helped me to understand the science much more deeply, but getting to know the scientists was just as important. I discovered a group of extraordinarily dedicated people who are confronting the global environmental crisis head on,” says Sam. “They are in a race against time, in a battle against apathy and ignorance, in a fight for resources, and in a constant struggle to be heard by global leaders, policy-makers, legislators, regulators, and the general public. We owe it to ourselves and to them to pay attention to what they are discovering, and more importantly, to act on it together.”
The result of this science-art collaboration is Athabasca, a collection of environmental songs set to be released on April 22nd, Earth Day, at the West End Cultural Centre in Winnipeg. Environmentalism has been a theme in Sam’s music from his earliest days as a songwriter, and this new album is a culmination of decades of focus on the ecological crisis. The music occupies a space that is neither didactic and preachy, nor naively optimistic. There are celebratory songs about the beauty of nature, but also songs that speak to our bewilderment, hurt, and anger at the dilemma we find ourselves in.