Holiday music isn’t all sleigh bells and sentimentality. Alongside the familiar standards runs a quieter, older tradition: the sad holiday song.
From Elvis’s Blue Christmas to Joni Mitchell’s River, these tracks acknowledge a truth the season often glosses over—this time of year can sharpen loneliness just as easily as it inspires joy. They’re songs built on absence, distance, and the emotional weight that settles in when everyone else seems to be celebrating.
That tradition was the starting point for me when I wrote ‘Longest Night of the Year (Christmas Tears)’, a song rooted firmly in an Alberta experience.
The story follows a father working in the northern oilsands, alone on a subarctic winter night. Temperatures push past minus forty. The sky is clear enough to see the aurora cutting across the horizon. From the cab of his truck, he watches the lights and thinks of home—of the family he’s providing for but can’t be with.
This new Sunophonic regeneration leans into the grit of the story. The vocal is rougher, more expressive. The arrangement folds into a folk palette, with a big sounding middle section that settles into the final refrain.
I think this new arrangement really suits the moment and the landscape—dark, cold, and brutally honest.
I’m pleased to share the new single, “Meet Me in Montreal,” which is among the most personal songs I’ve ever written. I wrote it in memory of close friend lost twenty years ago—a tragedy that happened far too young, and one that, sadly, many families know all too well. This song is a way to honour his memory.
The lyric grew out of a real trip we took together in our early twenties. He was driving across the country at the time, and we arranged to meet in Montreal. From there, we travelled to Quebec City and, thanks to a bit of luck, got our hands on tickets to see a Nordiques–Canadiens rivalry hockey game.
Later on, we boarded the Amtrak to New York City, wandered Manhattan aimlessly, eventually making our way to the top of the World Trade Center. I still have a photo of the two of us from that day—a picture of two young adults on top of the world.
In some ways, this song is about a destination, a journey, and how certain places carry the emotional weight of the people we shared them with. The imagery moves through a Canadian landscape: Sault Ste. Marie, Georgian Bay, ending at Île Ste-Hélène. The refrain “Je me souviens” serves as a nod to the Quebec license plate motto we see on the highway, but also quietly reinforces the act of remembering that motivates the song.
There’s a even reference to Expo 67. I’ve always been drawn to that moment in Montreal’s history—the optimism, the architecture, the cultural energy—even though the fair took place the year both of us were born. Île Ste-Hélène was the location of the Expo, and it serves as the setting for a poignant moment in the song, where pent up anticipation confronts pending disappointment.
Arial view of l’île Sainte-Hélène et de l’île Notre-Dame during Expo 1967. Source: Archives Montreal
The original version was a finalist in the 2015 Untapped Newcomer category of the Ship & Anchor Songwriting Contest in Calgary. I can still remember driving down from Edmonton to perform it in a packed pub. My friend’s parents were in the audience. They know who the song is about, and I’m eternally grateful we were able to share that moment together.
This Sunophonic Sessions version takes the song in a different direction from the early demo. There’s a fragility to it that didn’t come through in the earlier recording. Suno picked up on the “Je me souviens” refrain that was tucked into the original lyric and foregrounded it. That change seems to unlock something. It gives the song more urgency and a clearer sense of purpose.
I’m excited to finally release “Meet Me in Montreal” more than ten years after it was written. I’m grateful it’s finally ready to make its way into the wider world.
One of the songs closest to my heart from the Hired Gun album is ‘This Might Be Love‘. To give you a glimpse into the process, I’m sharing an image of the handwritten lyrics—the very first draft where the song took shape back in July 2017.
You’ll notice a little star sticker on the page—that’s my own reward system. Whenever I finish writing a song, I give myself a star. It’s a small ritual, but it makes the creative process feel like a celebration. 🌟
It’s a reminder that every track starts as words on a page before it grows into music.
I’d love for you to check it out—listen, like, and share This Might Be Love on Apple Music, Spotify, or wherever you stream your music. Every click and share helps bring these songs to more ears. 🎶
Selkirk Range presents a classic country-inspired collection of ten original tracks. This is the first of two album-length releases from the Sunophonic Sessions. Drop in to the listening party on August 21 at 7pm (Mountain), chat with the artist, and get a behind-the-scenes look at how the songs came together.
Hired Gun pairs vivid storytelling with melodies that are easy to carry and hard to forget, tracing open highways, small-town lives, and the hard-earned wisdom that comes with time. From upbeat road songs to quiet reflections, the album leans into the traditions of country and folk while adding a modern edge.
Leading the way is the featured single, What You Do — a joyful, heartfelt tribute to all the wild, tender, and ordinary things we do in the name of love. From singing karaoke into the night to standing in the pouring rain or racing home before sunrise, each verse captures love’s everyday devotion. Set to warm, melodic country-folk, the song reminds us that true love lives in the effort—in the silly, sincere, and soulful gestures we make again and again.
🎧 Listen to “What You Do” on Bandcamp, Spotify or Apple Music — and if it resonates, give it some love by liking it, adding it to your playlist, and sharing it with someone who’ll feel it too.
I’m excited (and, truthfully, a little nervous) to share a new chapter in the Selkirk Range project: The Sunophonic Sessions.
This collection of songs is built around something I hold sacred—words. Every lyric in this forthcoming collection of songs is my own, written by hand over many months and years. That part of the music—the storytelling, the voice behind the voice—is something I feel strongly about preserving. These are my stories, my images, my turns of phrase.
What’s new is how they’ve been brought to life in musical form.
The arrangements and performances you’ll hear weren’t created in a traditional studio. They were rendered using Suno.ai, a generative music platform that transforms lyrical and stylistic prompts into fully realized musical performances. At first, I was unsure—skeptical, even. I wondered whether it could really feel anything like music made with people in a room.
But what surprised me was just how responsive it is. Suno can infer mood, phrasing, and even expression in ways I didn’t expect. The platform—still early in its evolution—has a remarkable knack for giving voice and shape to a song. Quite frankly, it’s been a thrill to hear these words set to music like this.
Over the past decade, I’d written some two dozen songs that have been sitting in a collection of notebooks and pre-production demo recordings. As I began shaping them with Suno, they seemed to naturally split into two distinct sounds: one leaning into country traditions, the other into more adult-oriented folk-pop. The result is the Sunophonic Sessions, which will be released across a single and two albums:
The Ballad of the Titan is available on Bandcamp now and will be released on the other streaming platforms soon. It’s a slightly quirky take on the ill-fated OceanGate submersible, playing on the connection between the words Titan, Titanic, and Atlantic. You can read more about it in my earlier post.
Hired Gun, arriving on August 22 has something of a classic country feel, pairing plainspoken storytelling with easygoing melodies. I brought in Colin Noel from Electric Treehouse studio to add final polish to the mixes and mastering of this collection.
Duty. Courage. Truth. will follow later this year, exploring an adult contemporary sound with folk-rock at its core. Textured arrangements and reflective themes move across a range of moods, from intimate to anthemic. You can hear a pre-release version now on Bandcamp — and while you’re there, follow Selkirk Range to get updates and be the first to know when the album drops.
Above all, the greatest reward for a songwriter is finding an audience who feels the words and emotions you’ve poured into a song. In that sense, how the music was produced matters far less than whether it connects. Hearing these songs come back polished and expressive has been like hearing them for the first time — a mind-blowing experience for a songwriter working with limited resources. The tools may have changed, yet the intent remains the same: to create songs that are meaningful, and to offer them with the hope they’ll find a home in someone’s heart.
Thanks for listening.
– Gordon (Selkirk Range)
Look out for the first releases from Hired Gun and Duty Courage Truth coming soon.
This song started with a simple wordplay: Atlantic, Titanic, Titan. That connection stuck with me, and I wrote the chorus months ago, long before the verses. I was drawn to the interplay of those names, their inherent rhythm, and the tragic resonance between them:
The Atlantic took Titanic- Which lured the Titan down- To the bottom of the sea To the bottom of the sea
As part of my ongoing Sunophonic sessions—an artistic exploration of generative AI in songwriting—I sung the melody into Suno then pasted my lyrics, and wrote a simple prompt: “sea shanty, ballad.” It generated several versions, one of which uncannily matched my vision for the song. This is what makes working with these tools so captivating.
The result is a somber ballad in the tradition of maritime storytelling, akin to Gordon Lightfoot’s “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald”—a cautionary tale for a modern tragedy.
I’m thrilled to share that “Those City Lights,” from my second album Seeing the Sun Again, has been chosen by the very talented directors, Mark Wolfe and Kerry McArthur, to grace the opening segment of their new indie film, Exophoria.
This marks the second time Mark and Kerry have included my music in their projects, following the inclusion of “Broken Horse” in the soundtrack of their previous film, The Orchard. It’s an honour to have my songs resonate with their artistic vision.
What makes this placement even more special is a bit of uncanny synchronicity surrounding the opening footage of Exophoria. The scene was filmed near Okotoks, Alberta, looking north towards Calgary – the very same landscape that inspired “Those City Lights” as I was writing it. When I mentioned it to Mark, he playfully attributed this coincidence to “quantum entanglement.” Talk about a full-circle moment.
I want to extend my heartfelt congratulations and best wishes to Mark and Kerry for the premiere of Exphoria at the Bleeding Tree Film Festival on Monday, April 27th. I have no doubt that this film will be a resounding success, and I’m so proud that “Those City Lights” gets to play a part in its journey.
Stay tuned for more updates, and be sure to check out Exophoria if you have the chance!
The new album is coming soon. I’ve been working with Colin Noel at Electric Treehouse in Edmonton on a collection of 10 tracks that will be available on the streaming services in the new year.
In the meantime, here’s a sneak preview of a newly recorded version of “Wear Anything!”
This song was written several years ago for a songwriting workshop and has since become a favourite when I perform live. It’s all about different kinds of hats, which of course, are all about personality.
Coming up with a rhyming list of hats and making it work musically is the kind of creative challenge that I love taking on! For the longest time, I didn’t have a third verse for this song … but thank goodness for the Internet!
This version is now a duet featuring the incredible vocal talents of Taene Nomaowen, who joined me on a couple other tracks on the album.
I also added a new arrangement to it, while opening with a baritone ukulele made by Twisted Wood Guitars based in St. Albert near Edmonton (a very thoughtful gift from my wife).
SELKIRK RANGE 