Bryce Jardine

While on a songwriting retreat in Banff, Alberta, I watched a PBS documentary series about Harlan, Kentucky, and its coal-mining history. For most of the 1930s, Harlan was the location of an ongoing battle between the coal miners’ union organizers and coal company owners. The conflict escalated to deadly gunfights between deputies assigned to protect strike breakers, and the unionizers. In many cases, union men were beaten, their homes burned or riddled with bullets. Since the coal companies provided homes…

Out Of My Depth was inspired by a lifelong love between my mother-in-law, Mary Ann, and her ex-husband, Bob. It was an unconventional love story that I had the privilege to witness a glimpse of near its end. Their companionship began at a college bar in London, Ontario, developed quickly into a romance, then marriage, and the birth of a son, Hamilton. The close kinship lasted long after their divorce until Bob passed away from cancer, Mary Ann at his bedside. 

We all know the traditional arc of love stories…

Three years ago in February, the pandemic hit North America, as we all know too well. Before the virus went global, it seemed distant to me, like a storm surge breaking on far away shores. When it hit home in Ontario, the exponential spread was obvious. This thing was a tidal wave capable of crossing oceans and flooding continents around the globe.

My niece Emma was born as the first cases of covid 19 were being reported where I live in Toronto. Masking at the hospital was optional at that time, and there…