In the mid-90s Sub Pop signed not one, not two, but three bands from Canada, causing as many as dozens of people to clamor for an answer to the question: “What is up with the Sub Pop invasion of Halifax?” In this episode we answer that question and discover what the answer has to do with Courtney Love and Senator Elizabeth Warren.

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The Sub Pop Podcast - The New Brunswick Connection [S03, EP01}

   and a       who just   lives for a    sounds 

We're not the best, but we're pretty good.

Robbie Tucker is a singer, songwriter and producer from Miramichi, New Brunswick, who continues to pump out true art rife with fantastical imagery.   He has nine solo albums and a self-produced 3-episode-series recently picked up by the Momentu streaming channel under his belt.  Next year he celebrates the 20th anniversary of his debut album, The Ledden Street Sessions.  It’s hard to imagine that he’s been living with Parkinson’s disease since his diagnosis in 2005.

Robbie’s love for composition began early on, writing his first lyrics at the age of eight.  However, after forming his first band in junior high school, this 2006 International Music Aid award recipient discovered his passion for singing.  More than a decade later, while living in Montreal, Robbie would assemble his second backing group, The Dangerous Crayons.  A fierce nine-piece band equipped with a four-piece brass section.  During this period, Gabi Kislat, an independent filmmaker, began creating a documentary that focused on Robbie’s life and music during the first years following his diagnosis of early-onset Parkinson’s disease.  He was 28 at the time. 

His band stayed together until the end of 2009.  At this point, Robbie’s health had become too challenging to try and navigate on stage, and he decided to stop performing live.  However, he continued to write new music for his fourth album, Acoustic Fudge (2014).  Gabi Kislat’s documentary, Musically Medicated, was released in 2013, showcasing Robbie’s music.  It also featured deeply personal aspects of his Parkinson’s diagnosis and medication problems. 

A keen lover of music his whole life, Tucker treasures melodies from some of the greats, including Roy Orbison, Paul McCartney, and Elvis Presley.  Nowhere is this more evident than in his unique brand of pop-folk, which is playful, creative, and surprising, sprinkled with a touch of Orbison’s vocal tone and writing style. 

When it comes to highlights, whether it was meeting Willie Nelson or performing original music live with The Dangerous Crayons, Tucker cherishes each moment of his career.  However, according to this musician, the ultimate achievement is the creation of the work he leaves behind.  His music, his songs.  Some of his standouts thus far include I’m Sorry, a soaring piano ballad from the album GreenRoom (2007), Hope is All We Have, a song written for the film Nuclear Hope (2015), Wishbook, an emotional spoken-word piece from his Christmas album Peppermints (2020), and Jesus Beatrice, a bone-chilling tale dealing with spousal abuse from his latest album, The Way I Feel Vol.1 (2022),

The Way I Feel Vol. 1 is Robbie Tucker’s ninth full-length home studio album.  Following last year’s release, Blue Candy, which “takes folk-pop and inverts it, breaking through the genre’s restrictions and creating an album chock-full of eccentricity and creativity, “according to the folks over at www.cupsncakespod.com. 
 
Robbie Tucker’s complete discography is available on Bandcamp at https://robbietuckermusic.bandcamp.com/ and on all streaming platforms.  The Way I Feel Vol.1 will release on November 4th, 2022.