Adam Baldwin Photo by Lindsay Duncan
I was introduced to Adam Baldwin when he opened for Alan Doyle at the Scotiabank Centre in Halifax the day before St. Patrick’s Day in 2024. I learned that Baldwin was from Dartmouth and I was immediately struck by how beautifully lyrical the storytelling was in his songs. After the concert I bought two of his six albums straight away: Adam Baldwin- EP, which dates back to 2013, and Concertos and Serenades, which was released September 23, 2022. I’ll start with the EP, and do a second article about the more recent album soon.
Baldwin’s musical career began in 2005 when he was a founding member of Gloryhound and the Skyhawks with schoolmates Evan Meisner, David Casey, Shaun Hanlon, and Jeremy MacPherson. Baldwin left Gloryhound and the Skyhawks in 2008 and began performing and touring with Matt Mays. Baldwin was recognized as Male Artist of the Year and Musician of the Year by Music Nova Scotia during Nova Scotia Music Week in 2014, after the release of his EP.
The EP begins with “Arms,” which begins with a harmonica, and there is no quicker way to my heart. It tells the story of a young woman and her intense love for music, which sees her leaving home with her High School boyfriend and touring in a band. Unfortunately, she learns as many do that music can be a fickle mistress, which leads her back into the arms of someone who will love her back just as intensely.
What I love so much about Adam Baldwin’s storytelling is that he has a definite Bob Dylan vibe, both in the way that he constructs many of these stories, and also there is a quality of his voice that reminds me especially of 1960s Dylan. Yet, many of Baldwin’s songs are hyper-local to Nova Scotia, like in the song “Bonnie Raitt” where he sings, “My best friend Matty’s moving down the road/to the old school house down on Ochterlone/he’ll buy me a drink and he’ll save me a stool/play the shit jukebox at the beverage room,” which showcases how even the most mundane and universal experiences here can become poetry if captured by someone with a poetic eye and heart.
The narrative for “Bold As Brass” is not as straightforward, but is just as poetically satisfying. We begin with “There’s an old lady with some tarot cards/said step inside and let me see who you are/ living baby is the easy part/ but it’s hard as rain when you’re living in the dark” which immediately evokes strong imagery and curiosity. The “bold as brass” here seems to refer to the idea of someone working their fingers to the bone and never getting ahead, but musing that life must be easier for those taking the shortcuts who are “bold as brass.”
“Burning Man” is an ode to a lost love capturing the agony of trying to connect with someone who doesn’t want anything more to do with you. He begs, “So Daisy won’t you pick it up/I’m on the dark side of the phone/The toughest pill I swallow is you don’t love me anymore.” Conversely, “Love You With My Eyes Closed,” which starts with a jaunty piano introduction, beautifully captures the burst of elation and butterflies of a love just starting. This song too evokes imagery of this place, as Baldwin references, “She takes me down the causeway road/to feel the sand under her feet/gonna take all of our troubles and take all of our worries/and she’ll send em out to sea.”
I love songs that are lyrically and story-driven, and this EP is certainly one that you can put on and listen to from start to finish and give it your undivided attention. The second time through you might find yourself singing along.
Adam Baldwin will be playing at the Cavendish Beach Music Festival July 10, the TD Halifax Jazz Festival on July 16th, and the Stan Rogers Folk Festival, and then he is headed to Woodstock, New Brunswick for the Dooryard Arts Festival, and then to Guelph for the Hillside Festival. For tickets, to check out this EP for yourself, or for all other information, check out his website.
