Ken Yates Shares Single 'The Big One' Featuring Kathleen Edwards

Today, quietly resolute Canadian singer-songwriter Ken Yates announces his transcendent new album, Cerulean, due out June 3, and available for pre-order now, along with a soothing new single, "The Big One," featuring Kathleen Edwards. Watch Yates, joined by his dog, explore the outdoors of Ontario as if they are the last two alive on Earth, in the visual below.

In addition to the new music, Yates has announced four live shows, with more to be added, this Summer across Ontario, Canada and in Londonderry, NH. Tickets are available now here.

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 album's lead single, "The Big One," is a touching apocalyptic lullaby, where Yates softly sings, "Don't worry baby, if we're caught in the swell / We'll be there together for better or for well / When the sky is falling I won't turn and run / I'll be holding your hand when the big one comes."

The track acts as a place of refuge, and is a tender reminder to keep your loved ones close as life can change in the blink of an eye. Yates says, "Believe it or not, this song was written before the pandemic. I was traveling in the Pacific Northwest with someone who was constantly mentioning the Cascadian Subduction Zone, a fault line predicted to cause a massive earthquake and subsequent tsunami, also known as "The Big One".

Yates continues, as he reckons with life's fragility, "I couldn't stop thinking about how entire societies of people live there with the knowledge it's going to happen at some point, and when it does, they're totally fed. There's something poetic about that acceptance. It was the first song I wrote for this album, and it certainly opened the door to digging deeper into inner struggles for me. It was almost a thought of how it's easier to distract yourself with the end of the world rather than face your own feelings."

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