Lynne Hanson, an Ottawa-based folk musician, is playing eight dates in Alberta, including a stop in Medicine Hat on Feb. 24.--Photo courtesy Jen Squires
zmason@medicinehatnews.com
Award-winning songwriter and folk musician Lynne Hanson is going on an eight-date Alberta tour starting Feb. 19, featuring a Feb. 24 stop in Medicine Hat.
Hanson has released 10 studio albums and two books of poetry over a 20-year solo career. Her last album, 2024’s “Just A Poet,” was nominated by the Canadian Folk Music Awards for Contemporary Album of the Year.
Hanson has previously won two Canadian Folk Music Awards.
She has toured as support for Grammy-nominated artists, and she’s kicking off a new leg of tour dates that will start in Alberta and head to the East Coast and down into the States.
“I love Alberta, I keep coming back. I love the mountains, I love the people, I always have a good time,” said Hanson in an interview with the News on Wednesday.
Hanson says she tours about once a year in Alberta, including a house concert last year. This time, she’ll be in the province for a little under two weeks.
Her Medicine Hat show will take place at Note: Comfort Food and Drink. While some of her dates feature other artists, her stop here in town will be a solo show.
“It’s a little more intimate when it’s just me,” she said. “It has a house concert type vibe to it. I tell little stories in between songs – I do that anyways – but it’s just a little more personal when it’s just me and the guitar.”
The tour will feature songs from her acclaimed last album, as well as some new material she’s developing for her next album project, which she says she will begin working on in earnest this spring.
Hanson says the experience of touring always provides inspiration for the songwriting process. As she’s still writing the next project, she says this tour is likely to inspire her new body of work.
“Anytime I’m on the road, I meet new people, and it’s like osmosis or something. You just pick it up when you’re out there, and then I come home and I write new songs.”
She says the new material has been playfully described as “bad boy heartbreak songs.”
“My characters are just bad asses. It’s one of those things where you know it’s not a good idea, but you do it anyways. A few of the new songs are kind of along those lines. So I tell the story and the characters are about that.”
Doors will open at 6:30 p.m. on Feb. 24. The show will begin at 7 p.m.
Tickets are available on Eventbrite and through the Tourism Medicine Hat webpage, starting at $28.
