Ellen Froese - Solitary Songs
Victory Pool
Released on May 6th, 2026
Embarking on a young summer evening through Regina’s Cathedral neighborhood, drifting on a fixed current, passing by the blanket flower and blazingstar, I finally joined the crowd to shuffle excitedly into the belly of The Artesian. We’d come to this old church retrofitted to host music and theater and passed the threshold into the nave of the building, the main stage, our altar. Pews raised to form bleacher-style seating, we took our seats. I felt wonderfully primed for a night of good ol’ down-home Indie-Folk.
The night began with the velvet voice of the acclaimed Theresa Sokyrka, whose humble mastery was a delightful first impression. After a brief retreat for refreshments and socializing, the lights dimmed and the crowd took their seats once more. First to make the stage were The Marmalads, Saskatchewan’s crown jewel of instrumental groups, and the backing band for this string of dates. They kicked things off with a simmering play-on, vamping on a groove that held the room in suspense until Ellen Froese made the stage, her vocals finally breaking the spell. When finishing the song, the band informed us that the play-on was a last-minute idea and it didn’t go as planned. Color me impressed, because I wouldn’t have known. This casual admittance was endearingly candid; a genuine display of friends having a gas and playing with the form. This lack of pretense is what I loved so much about the album that they’re touring, an album that features most of the night’s band, entitled Solitary Songs.
Recorded collaboratively with friends in Saskatoon, Solitary Songs sounds poised yet unpretentious. Froese navigates the listener through sounds both grandly orchestrated and intimately bare. There’s a stoic march to “Don’t Look Hard”, contrasting beautifully with the slippery sway of “Windy Was the Weather”. Yet, it’s the lush arrangements lifting the album into a category of its own, teetering at times towards the psychedelic on “Bellflower Blue”, “Closed Game”, and “Living Without Your Love”. From brass to wind, piano to pedal steel, there’s an opulence that’s implemented to sound minimal, and always serves the song.
Standout track “Tide Pool” is a joyously curious tune about Ellen’s cat, a fact revealed to us with brief banter after playing it live. The next song in the set, “Living Without Your Love”, starts with the lyric, “yeah, I’ll miss my cats”. That lyric, following that banter, made the band giggle, and was more of that openness that makes these songs seem right at home. On “Perfecting My Wink”, Ellen pairs vulnerable insights with a playful, almost childlike goofiness. Title track “Solitary Song” feels so effortlessly exact in its feeling, it demands reprise, before a rope and ride to conclude the record with an ode to “Lucille Mulhall”.
Solitary Songs exists in the mercy of its own brilliant means, with a magical, fated quality. If you’re looking for a record that combines the collaborative warmth of a tight-knit prairie community with the solitary, cosmic searching of a brilliant songwriter, do not pass this one by. It’s a masterclass in modern folk melancholy, and it deserves a permanent home on your turntable.
