Why Innes Wilson Rules by Adam Sturgeon
Innes Wilson
Taking a quick minute to write about a very good friend. The prolific and often reclusive Innes Wilson.
Innes Wilson is a singer-songwriter and farmer from Guelph, ON. He cut his teeth in the mid-2000’s Cancon alt-country boom and was one of the key members of Out of Sound Records in our earliest incarnation as a DIY label. I was also lucky enough to write songs with him in his fuzz-folk band Innes Wilson & His Opposition. It was an early and perhaps disheartening stab at survival in beat up tour wagons and long icy drives across the country. It is now a great joy for me to know that Innes is hopping back in the car and hitting the old dusty once again.
A songwriter to his core, Innes’ baroque stylings mix with pop sensibilities to remain his benchmark sound. A solemn and early riser, taking time to tend his farm, Innes is sure to be found pondering the morning landscape. Just him and his birds and the faintest inspirations; shadows overwhelmed by light, lifting fog, frost and dripping ice. And such is his particular and natural way of life. Simple and to the point.
I’ve always related to Innes in that way that you can’t quite state and perhaps that is the mode of his relative obscurity. It takes time to respect the individual, happening upon each other one mosquito infested night, on a side road out of town many years ago… I didn’t quite know what to make of this fella. What I have learned, however (and I’ve learned a lot from Innes), is that hundreds of songs down the line, his connection and commitment to his work requires no comparison, no need for celebration, just the pure and simple release of his own singular realizations recorded over and over in tiny rooms in his hometown.
Adam Sturgeon is an Anishinabek artist, musician, avid screen printer, grassroots community builder and an advocate for Indigenous rights and social change. Currently based in London, Ontario, Adam fronts Whoop-SZO , founded Out of Sound Records and is a core organizer behind the Grickle Grass Festival. Whoop-SZO will be performing a special acoustic set at Kazoo! Fest 2018 on Saturday April 14th at Dublin Street United Church (68 Suffolk St. W.)
Innes Wilson plays Kazoo! Fest 2018 on Saturday April 14th with Dorothea Paas at Red Brick Cafe (8 Douglas St.)
