Tooth Blackner and Calgary Folk Fest present: Hayden

For more than thirty years, Hayden has built a body of work from moments in life that can easily pass unnoticed. Across ten studio albums, his songs explore family, memory, love, loss, absurdity and the strange beauty hidden inside ordinary days. Despite its title, The Recent Past isn’t nostalgic so much as observant, reflecting on longing for a time that wasn’t all that long ago while trying to stay rooted in the present.

Every song on the album began on the weathered 1940s Heintzman piano at Hayden’s family’s Grey County cottage. With final mixes by Grammy-winning engineer Tom Schick, The Recent Past features drummer Adam Hindle, pedal steel player Matt Kelly, fiddler Miranda Mulholland and upright bassist Ben Whiteley. There’s heartache, frank declarations, comfort and danceable surprises—a record to play when you want to take a breath, reflect or escape.