On his new LP, Harvest Highway, Jimmy Rankin hits the road again, time traveling and traversing far-flung destinations — along with his native Nova Scotia, of course — through his singular brand of east coast folk-rock. The Cape Breton icon’s eighth solo album is rich in the narrative songwriting traditions that Rankin has been honing for nearly his whole life, filled with crackling yarns and poignant chronicles about feverish marriages in Thunder Bay, unmoored Newfoundlanders, lovers on the run, and fallen soldiers in France. 

This collection of songs is a continuation from Rankin’s last record, Moving East – an homage to the coast. These are the first full-length records that he recorded in his home province with fellow Nova Scotian, Joel Plaskett. On Harvest Highway, they rounded out the fantastic crew of musicians including JP Co

“I don’t think I could’ve written this song in my 20s or 30s,” says Rankin about “Sue St. Marie.” “My kids are getting older, we’ve moved away for close to eight years and then came back home to the east coast, and my wife and I celebrate anniversaries in the decades now. I’m getting older but in a good way and maybe even getting a bit wiser… The point being that at my age, I can take a step back and see with a wide-angle lens the things that matter to me now: love, family, friends, being home and at home in my own skin.”