A troubadour in every sense of the word, Edmonton’s Joe Nolan has been making a living writing and performing his songs since he was a teenager. 20 years later, Nolan’s style has evolved over time, but the core of his gift is as it’s ever been: gently fingerpicked guitar, deeply personal lyrics and that trembling vibrato with the power to move straight into a Delta blues howl.

Nolan’s latest LP, 2025’s Luv In The New World is a lush and expansive record that adds symphonic strings to Nolan’s songs. While Nolan previously ruminated on loves lost and gone, Luv In The New World finds Nolan focused on being present in the smaller moments that come to define love, his elegant poetry and plain-spoken barroom musings set to sympathetic strings and rising keys.

A lot of artists decide one day they’re going to make music the deepest purpose of their life, but the rises and falls of that life take a toll on people. Joe Nolan has weathered much on the path, but has remained as dedicated as any songwriter in Alberta. Nolan’s is the path of a travelling minstrel finding love in the old world and the new.

- Mike Dunn