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Ojibway singer-songwriter, Nick Sherman, gives new meaning to “the voice in the wilderness,” or rather, the voice from the wilderness. While he still calls his relatively rural birthplace of Sioux Lookout (pop. 5000) home, Nick spent much of his youth out on the land, moving between his hometown, the small First Nation community of Weagamow Lake, and his family’s trapline on North Caribou Lake. It was here in the depths of the Northern Ontario forest that his family members would play guitar as they tended their trapline, and Nick found himself soaking in songs and lyrics.

Nick’s teenage musical attempts were fueled by hardcore punk and his adolescent rage and confusion as he tried to find his place in the world. His songs are inspired by his memories of those trapline sounds, by great songwriters, and by the timeless hymns of celebration and lamentation on his reserve. His gentle voice is rich with honesty and the vitality of youth, but tempered with world-weariness, atop his strong, simple guitar. Nick’s deeply personal songs about “the best and worst days of the last four years,” inspired by the lives of people in his community, events in the world around him, and his Aboriginal heritage resonate with soul-brushing candour as he sings the boreal forest blues.

Watch out for Nick on the road supporting his new album, Knives and Wildrice.