Wyatt C. Louis

Walking the line between genres like an easy path rather than a tightrope, carried by textural and ethereal songs, Wyatt C. Louis gently pours their heart into effortless vocals, which comes through clearly on their debut album Chandler, a title referencing their middle name. Louis, a nêhiyaw (Plains Cree) singer-songwriter born and raised in parts of Treaty Six Territory, lets the amalgamation of those places shine through on these tracks.

Out now via Royal Mountain Records, Chandler is suffused with a soft comfort that glows with feelings of familiarity and ease. Louis found levity through collaboration on this album recorded at singer-songwriter and producer Phenix Warren’s studio, Alta Sound, in Calgary, AB with Colin Carbonera stepping in as producer/engineer, Kyle Donauer playing drums, and Jesse Shire on the bass.

Though fixed borders are malleable for Louis, surroundings still impact their art, with sensations and textures getting personified through sound. “Sundog” brings forth a time and season’s weather, the frigid winters in Moh’kinstsis lightened by warm Chinook winds, embodied through the lushness of saxophone to add a layer of balminess to the deep freeze. On lead single “In Emerald”, a hazy birthday weekend spent in Seattle as City and Colour’s Matt Kelly’s pedal laps throughout like the soft waves on the Pacific Coast, while the Wild Pink collaboration “Oh Vibrant Sky” sees Louis sweltering on a long summer day as they watch acts on a festival stage.