Ken Yates Shares New LP 'Cerulean'

Canadian singer-songwriter Ken Yates has shared his fourth full-length album, Cerulean, where the musician emerges from the depths of despair to recognize life's imperfections and ultimately finds hope and acceptance. The captivating LP is out everywhere now, along with rousing single "Don't Mean To Wake You" featuring Stephanie Lambring.

In addition to the new album, Yates will be touring this summer across Canada and the U.S. highlighted by new co-bill dates with Stephanie Lambring announced this week. Yates will be supporting recent collaborator Kathleen Edwards at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Burlington, Ontario on August 9, as well as a festival slot on July 15-17 at the Home County Music and Art Festival in London, Ontario. Multiple dates feature artists like Jadea Kelly, Abigail Lapell, Jenny Berkel and Brian Dunne. Grab Tickets to see Yates and Edwards here, and see the full Home County Festival lineup and learn more about entry here. Tickets to all shows this summer are now available here.

Cerulean meets Yates at his darkest and most vulnerable, as he transforms the pain of grief, fear and loss into an 11-track quest towards hope, light and peace. A crucial vehicle out of the depths of darkness and bitterness for Yates, Cerulean serves as a powerful reemergence filled with his signature remarkable vocal intimacy as well as a profound yet candid peek into the universal human experience. Along with producer and collaborator Jim Bryson, the LP the duo teamed up to create a hard reset, a painful look in the mirror-one that allows Yates the space to come to terms with life's challenges and heal.

"Over the last 2 years, the songs from 'Cerulean' have been a refuge for me during an extremely difficult time in life," shares Yates. "Around the same time as the pandemic arrived, my mother was diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic breast cancer, and given 7 months to live. It felt like life changed overnight, and it was a lot to process all at once."

"The result was a wave of sadness, anger, anxiety and bitterness at a level I hadn't experienced before, and suddenly there was nothing to distract me from it," Yates continues. "While I didn't know it at the time, these songs were my way of moving through the stages of grief. From my fear about the state of the world (The Big One, The Future Is Dead), to the sleepless, anxious nights (Don't Mean To Wake You), to working through my anger and sadness (Small Doses, Half-Clenched Teeth, Grocery Store), and finally, to recognizing the abundance of good in my life (Best of the Broken Things, Good Things)."

Now, two years later, Yates is able to find peace, calm and refuge when listening back to the body of work that carried him through such extraordinary anguish. "When I listen back to these songs now, I can hear myself processing these feelings in real time, and trying to find small moments of peace. Cerulean as a whole is ultimately about searching for that calm/peace, however fleeting it may be."

Amidst deep uncertainty and devastating grief, Yates created a body of work that propelled him through the darkness. The culmination of this pain resulted in, Yates says, "A wave of fear, anger, anxiety and bitterness at a level I hadn't experienced before, and suddenly there was nothing to distract me from it. While I didn't know it at the time, these songs were my way of moving through the stages of grief."

Specifically referencing moments on the album, Yates explains its central themes, "From my fear about the state of the world (The Big One, The Future Is Dead), to the sleepless, anxious nights (Don't Mean To Wake You), to working through my bitterness and anger (Small Doses, Half-Clenched Teeth, Grocery Store), and finally, to recognizing the abundance of good in my life (Best of the Broken Things, Good Things)."

Reflecting back on the album now, Yates hears himself heal, putting himself back together as he processes his own grief and makes his way through some of life's most difficult moments to eventually find a sense of peace. Yates explains, "When I listen back to these songs now, I can hear myself processing these feelings in real time, and trying to find small moments of peace. Cerulean as a whole is ultimately about searching for that calm/peace, however fleeting it may be."

The third track on the latest album, "Don't Mean To Wake You," featuring Stephanie Lambring, puts words to the experience of not being able to quiet one's brain. The song details the specific, exhausting thoughts that race before finally falling asleep at night and not being able to possibly understand how the person next to you can sleep so soundly. Yates recalls these instances, adding, "You know how as soon as your head hits the pillow, your brain seems to wake up and suddenly starts skimming through your entire life? This song is about that. One of those nights where you can't fathom falling asleep, or how the person next to you could possibly be asleep while you're this awake. You don't want to wake them up, but also you're totally fing going to wake them up."

The full-length release follows its previously-released singles: golden hour soundtrack, "Honest Light," featuring Caroline Marie Brooks, "Best of the Broken Things," "Consolation Prize" featuring Katie Pruitt and the apocalyptic lullaby "The Big One" featuring Kathleen Edwards. FLOOD Magazine, who premiered "Consolation Prize" wrote the track features, "downcast energy and confessional lyrics while adding layers to its lush soundscape." FLOOD also adds that the ski-themed video, also directed by Cook, sees Yates "celebrate last place" and presents "Yates himself on the slopes, distractedly downhill-racing rather than busting out flashy moves."

Continuing their support of Cerulean as they usher in the newest era of Ken Yates, FLOOD Magazine also recently premiered a new installment of their Neighborhoods live sessions, this time, featuring Ken Yates playing a new track, "Grocery Store," on a rooftop in the west side of Toronto. FLOOD wrote that the track is a, "It's another lyrical vessel of yearning and emotional reckoning matched up with strummed acoustic guitar, further setting the scene for what Cerulean has in store."

In May 2020, Yates released his third album, Quiet Talkers, which was met with high praise from tastemakers like Atwood Magazine, who wrote the album's track, "Surviving is Easy" is "an earnest, heartfelt rendering of everyday struggle." Author and host of the popular The Minimalists Podcast, Joshua Fields Millburn said of the album, "That ebullient feeling when you stumble into something special-that's what I felt when I happened upon this album.

A quiet masterpiece-winsome, muscular songwriting, perfect for a late-night drive." Praise also has come in the form of a co-sign from fellow musician John Mayer, who said, "Want to hear a great song? I mean a REALLY great song? Ken Yates wrote a tune called "I Don't Wanna Fall In Love" and posted a live video of it on YouTube. This song moved me when I first heard it and it still does today."

Over the last decade, Ken Yates has solidified himself as a prolific musician, combining heartfelt lyricism, genuine authenticity and hypnotic guitar strums. After studying at the Berklee College of Music, Yates released The Backseat EP in 2011, followed by his full-length debut Twenty-Three in 2013. He won the Colleen Peterson Songwriting Award in 2014 for his song "The One That Got Away" and released his second album, Huntsville, in 2016, produced by Jim Bryson.

By 2017, Yates was making waves in folk with his poignant songwriting, winning the awards for Canadian Folk Music Award for both Songwriter of the Year and New Artist of the Year. Now, with a fresh perspective and renewed sense of self, Yates brings honesty, growth and profound peace to his latest work, Cerulean. Nonetheless, Cerulean feels like a hard reset on Yates' art and artistry. Reuniting with producer Jim Bryson, the album firmly steps into indie folk and alternative territories - he cites Big Thief, Andy Shauf, and The War On Drugs as a few of his inspirations.

The long-awaited fourth LP from Ken Yates, Cerulean, is out everywhere now. Through gentle, tranquil guitar strums and intimate lyricism, Ken Yates is able to transform pain into beauty, darkness to light and grief into hope. Over 11 tracks, the singer paves his own path to healing and happiness, inviting all to join him. Hear the new album and the Ken Yates classics live this summer across Ontario, Canada, Michigan, and Londonderry, NH this summer.

Listen to the new album here:

Ken Yates Summer 2022 Tour Dates

June 8 - The Ark - Ann Arbor, MI
June 11 - Pumpstock - East Lansing, MI
June 18 - Bayfield Town Hall - Bayfield, ON w/ Jadea Kelly
June 19 - Bowie's - Smiths Falls, ON
June 20 - The Red House - Kingston, ON
June 22 - The Cameron House - Toronto, ON
June 23 - Aeolian Hall - London, ON w/ Abigail Lapell
June 25 - Mills Hardware - Hamilton, ON w/ Abigail Lapell and Jenny Berkel
July 15-17 - Home County Festival - London, ON
July 27 - Concerts On The Common - Londonderry, NH w/ Brian Dunne
August 9 - Royal Botanical Gardens - Burlington, ON supporting Kathleen Edwards
September 27 - Southgate House - Newport, KY co-bill with Stephanie Lambring
September 28 - SPACE - Evanston, IL co-bill with Stephanie Lambring
September 29 - 20 Front Street - Lake Orion, MI co-bill with Stephanie Lambring
October 1 - The Timber House - Rochester, NY co-bill with Stephanie Lambring
October 5 - World Cafe Live - Philadelphia, PA co-bill with Stephanie Lambring
October 6 - The Spire Center - Plymouth, MA co-bill with Stephanie Lambring
October 8 - Cafe 939 The Red Room - Boston, MA co-bill with Stephanie Lambring

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