Since releasing his latest album Make Way For This Heartache over the summer, Ben Arsenault has quickly become one of Canada's most vital new voices within the international Americana scene. That momentum is sure to keep building with the album's new single "Grand Forks," which encapuslates the album's vintage vibes while showing off the Vancouver-based artist's classic vocal style.
Make Way For This Heartache was produced at Vancouver’s Afterlife Studios and features an all-star cast of Canadian and American musicians, including pedal steel maestros Caleb Melo and Scott Smith, City & Colour band members Erik Nielsen, Matt Kelly and John Sponarski, along with drummer Leon Power (Frazey Ford) and singer-songwriter Marin Patenaude adding harmony vocals.
In essence, Make Way For This Heartache sums up Arsenault’s musical journey to date. It began about 15 years ago when he made his first impression as singer/guitarist with Real Ponchos, Vancouver’s long-standing psychedelic country-rockers, but Arsenault’s interest in country music started early through exploring his grandfather’s record collection that included Hank Williams, Ray Price and Lefty Frizzell. One of his strongest childhood memories was hearing his father sing Hank Sr. songs while they walked in the woods to let bears know they were coming—something that Ben still does to this day.
Later, Arsenault moved to Montreal where he first took to the stage and found his voice at Barfly’s Sunday Bluegrass jam. But as the lure of the bright lights began to fade and a longing for the wilderness of the west coast set in, Arsenault dug deeper into classic country, at first through the Grateful Dead’s covers of Merle Haggard and Marty Robbins songs, which encouraged him to throw the doors of interpretation wide open, and led to the formation of Real Ponchos.
It’s all come together on Make Way For This Heartache, a soothing balm for broken hearts and unfulfilled dreams. The truth and hurting that the record embodies is as old as humanity. “These are all songs that I love to sing, and many of them I have been singing and performing for years,” Arsenault says. “They’re songs that have stood the test of time; songs that have become less about the experiences in my life that inspired them, and more about life itself.”
Ben Arsensault's Make Way For This Heartache is available now via North Country Collective, and on all digital platforms.
