BY MIKE METTLER — MAY 20, 2021

All roads lead to Saskadelphia, according to Canadian music icons The Tragically Hip. What does that mean, you ask? I’m more than happy to tell you.

Coming out on vinyl, CD, and all major digital platforms on May 21 via Universal Music Canada/UMe, Saskadelphia is a brand-new Hip album comprised of six previously unreleased tracks written in 1990. Five of them were recorded that very same year during the sessions for The Hip’s triumphant February 1991 sophomore album Road Apples in New Orleans. Meanwhile, a sixth track, “Montreal,” was also written at the same time, but since its original recording has yet to be located, a live performance of it culled from the band’s December 7, 2000 performance at The Molson Centre in Montreal is included on Saskadelphia in its stead. (And, I might add, the track is given additional weight based on where the live show it came from took place.)

The album title Saskadelphia is well-known to denizens of Hip lore. It’s a term the band coined as a nod to the extensive touring they were doing in the early 1990s — a mash-up of the names of a pair of well-known Canadian and American cities (Saskatoon and Philadelphia, respectively) — and it was anointed as the original working title for Road Apples (which was initially earmarked to be a double album) before being rejected by the band’s American label executives at the time for being, well, “too Canadian.”

Naturally, as Hip guitarist Rob Baker told me exclusively earlier this week, “We then gave the label [i.e., MCA] Road Apples as the alternate title, and they loved it. I don’t think we could have given them a title more Canadian than that!” (Google Road Apples if you don’t already know what the phrase, er, stands for, but please don’t stand in any of it. . . .)

Saskadelphia‘s lead single “Ouch” (also known to certain Hip fans by a long-mislabeled bootleg title, “My Skeleton”) greets listeners with the familiar roaring vocals of late Hip singer and ace lyricist Gord Downie, while “Not Necessary,” a song whose incendiary sound is layered with touchingly emotional lyrics, is pure, undiluted Hip. Here, aforementioned guitarist Rob Baker, vocalist/guitarist Gord Downie, drummer Johnny Fay, guitarist Paul Langlois, and bassist Gord Sinclair collectively lay the groundwork for The Hip’s unmistakable signature sound. In addition to the above-mentioned “Montreal,“ rounding out the Saskadelphia collection are the lightning-rod of-era live-set barnburner “Crack My Spine Like a Whip,” the emergent Downiesque musings of “Just As Well,“ and the rip-roaring revivalist stomp of sorts known as “Reformed Baptist Blues.”

“I went, ‘Wow’ when I heard ‘Ouch’ after all this time,” Baker recounted in the official Saskadelphia press release. “We were a pretty good little band.” (Somewhat of an understatement, methinks, but I digress.)

After rediscovering the tracks they wrote more than three decades ago, The Tragically Hip knew they had to share this music with their fans. Of these abandoned vault souvenirs from the past, drummer Johnny Fay said (also in the press release), “We didn’t know what was there, so this meant baking them and listening to them as they were being transferred. Hearing them for the first time in 30 years was crazy.” If you want to see Fay in action doing just that, look no further than the clip below to see the skeletal fruit of his literal musical investigations at work.

Why wait any longer? Saskadelphia is available for pre-order right here: https://thehip.lnk.to/Saskadelphia.

2021 is shaping up to be a banner year for the band. For one thing, The Tragically Hip are set to receive the 2021 Humanitarian Award Presented by Music Canada at the 50th Annual JUNO Awards on Sunday, June 6, 2021 in Toronto, Ontario. Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson of Rush, Canadian Music Hall of Fame inductees and rock icons of their own accord, will present the band with the award. The award recognizes outstanding Canadian artists or industry leaders whose humanitarian contributions have positively enhanced the social fabric of Canada and beyond. Not only that, but you can see The Hip in a rare performance with Feist at the show as well. The broadcast will be streamed globally on CBCmusic.ca/junos. 

Full Track Listing for The Tragically Hip: Saskadelphia (vinyl, CD, and digital formats)

1. Ouch

2. Not Necessary

3. Montreal (Live From The Molson Centre, Montreal, December 7, 2000)

4. Crack My Spine Like a Whip

5. Just As Well

6. Reformed Baptist Blues