Rock and blues guitarist and singer Garret T. Willie is thrilled to release his debut album Same Pain that is out now along with the music video to his single “Make You Mine Tonight” that can be viewed https://youtu.be/ampPFXbTKV8
“All of these songs happened this past year, in the span of six months,” says Garret T. Willie of the whirlwind of creativity and pure life experience that gave birth to his first album. Same Pain was written in the moment, as Willie ruminated on pain and loss occasionally, yes, but also lived it up like the rock star he could soon become from time to time, too. “Every song that Parker and me laid down or wrote was something that had pretty much happened within the past couple of months,” he says. “It’s like a time capsule, this album.” It was a wild ride indeed. So here’s Willie on each of the studio cuts to be found on Same Pain. You’ll have to pry the really juicy details out of him yourself. But trust me when I say they’re pretty juicy.
In support of his new music he will be touring all year around. See all tour dates below.
Garret T. Willie is an old soul masquerading as an uncommonly wise, weathered, witty and world-weary 23-year-old and he’s about to give rock ‘n’ roll a formidable 21st -century kick in the ass. Garret T. Willie hails from Kingcome Inlet, off the coast of British Columbia but while Willie’s Indigenous back story also gives him more right than most to sing the blues – and at heart, Garret T. Willie is a rock ‘n’ roller – he’d rather that not be the whole story.
Willie is the personification of an open book in the lyric sheet to his upcoming debut record Same Pain. What he offers the world is something it has genuinely been missing for awhile: a contemporary take on hardscrabble blues and the purest and rawest rock ‘n’ roll to follow its teachings thereafter.
He’s studiously schooled in all the right source material, from Howlin’ Wolf, Albert King and Muddy Waters to Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis to The Rolling Stones, Ten Years After, AC/DC, Stevie Ray Vaughan, George Thorogood and everyone else who’s carried the torch into the present, with a little Johnny Cash and Hank Williams thrown in for some outlaw-country flavour on the side.
And that’s why, on Same Pain, Garret T. Willie can not only really rip it up on the guitar, but also with the gut-busting honesty of someone who understands that if you ain’t lived it, you shouldn’t sing it. At least that’s the way it is for him.
Garret T. Willie has absolutely no interest in emulating the musical past, emulating his heroes. His interest is only in channeling every ounce of the classic blues and rock ‘n’ roll he venerates so deeply into something new. Bringing it into the now, hustling it towards the future and maybe leaving his signature on the wall for a few of the bored kids to follow in his footsteps.
Tour Dates
September 15 – Rossland, BC @ Between the Peaks Festival
September 23 – North Vancouver, BC – Shipyards Featival