An introduction to Jeremy Dutcher's hopeful Polaris-shortlisted album, Motewolonuwok

Jeremy Dutcher's second album, Motewolonuwok, is one of this year's 10 Polaris Music Prize-nominated albums, and CBC Music's Shortlist Shortcut series is back to help music fans learn the key details about each shortlisted record.

Dig into the stories behind the Montreal-based, Tobique First Nation-raised singer-songwriter's album, the tracks you need to know, and the perfect summer activities to complement your listening. 

You can also listen to The Ten radio special on Motewolonuwok here.

Artist:

Jeremy Dutcher.

Album:

Motewolonuwok.

Polaris Music Prize history:

Dutcher is a former Polaris winner: he won the 2018 prize for his debut album, Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa. This is his second time appearing on the short list.

Notable players:

Motewolonuwok was truly made in community, as Dutcher gathered many of his friends to create the album. Fellow Polaris winner Owen Pallett did some of the orchestral arrangements, while Polaris shortlister Basia Bulat collaborated on some of the lyrics for "Take My Hand." 

Throughout the album, you'll also hear Dutcher's incredible WICIW Choir, which included: James Baley, Meghan Jamieson, Teiya Kasahara, Keith Lam, Jonathan MacArthur, Marion Newman, Lydia Persaud, Alex Samaras, Karen Weigold, Alanna Stuart and Katrina Westin.

Story behind the nominated album:

Dutcher's debut album, Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa, was a passionate language revitalization project, and Motewolonuwok continues that work — though its soundscape is significantly larger. This time, Dutcher employed a full choir and an expanded orchestra, led by Pallett, which allowed him to go bigger while also pushing the boundaries of genre, dipping into experimental pop and jazz.

"When I wanted to approach the sound world for this record, I was thinking about, OK, who can I call on in my community to be a part of this work?" Dutcher explained recently in a behind-the-scenes video. "And so for me, gathering that WICIW, that choir of voices, that is so much a part of this record, was really crucial. I got to teach my language [Wolastoqey] to my friends, which is a really exciting opportunity."

Through Motewolonuwok, Dutcher explores where he fits in contemporary Indigeneity, which he does by singing both in Wolastoqey, the language of the Wolastoqiyik people (who have long resided in New Brunswick and Quebec), and English, marking the first time he's recorded in the latter language. "Shared tongue is a beautiful gift, with a complicated reason," Dutcher explained via press release when the album came out. As Wolastoqey language revitalization continues to be a crucial part of his story, Dutcher wanted to take advantage of the non-Indigenous fans he attracted through Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa — which also won a Juno Award — and directly communicate with that audience. 

"It's an important part of this whole message, ensuring that, as we're in this revelatory, revolutionary time with Indigenous people standing up and claiming our rights and being strong about asserting what we know to be true, I think we also need to have humility in that voice and keep extending that hand in invitation," Dutcher told CBC Music in fall 2023.

Standout songs:

'Skicinuwihkuk'

mecimiw naka askomiw
skicinuwihkuk tan qiniw iyuwok wasis kpomawsuwinuwok
'tankeyutomon-oc kihtahkomikomon.
skicinuwihkuk  

Translation: 

Always and forever
This is Indian land
As long as there is a child among our people
We will protect the land
Indian land

The introduction track to what would become Dutcher's sophomore album, "Skicinuwihkuk" is a moving song about land sovereignty. Sonically more in line with Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa than the rest of Motewolonuwok, the track is a perfect transition from project to project, as Dutcher sits at the piano where he projects his incomparable voice, melding it with the Pallett-led orchestra in the back half of the song. "Skicinuwihkuk" translates to "Indian Land," and was inspired by the same wax cylinder recordings that sparked Dutcher's debut album. It poignantly begins and ends with words from Solomon Polchies from Sitansisk First Nation, audio that was recorded in 1963.

'Take My Hand'

"Take my hand, walk with me," Dutcher sings, gently dropping the first English words we hear on the album, extending an invitation to listen. An expression of love, the idea was passed on to him by his mentor and elder, Maggie Paul, who also guided Dutcher to the Wolastoqey wax cylinders that inspired Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa. Dutcher told CBC Music in fall 2023 that it was the first time Paul sang to him in English, and that she then asked him to "sing this for the young people — they're forgetting how to love each other." 

In the video for the moving track, a clip of two-spirit elder Gayle Pruden, Dancing Bear, appears before the song: "Don't ever, ever be ashamed of your language; this is the language that was given to us," she says. "And don't ever, ever be ashamed of the way you look." Dutcher's stirring love song that follows is in English, with Wolastoqey words punctuating verses, and his native language projected behind him.

'Ancestors Too Young'

This is the lead single for Motewolonuwok, and was the first track Dutcher ever wrote in English. It's a step out from the orchestra that buoys most of the album, built instead on a sharp electric guitar and tense drum beat, melting into a frantic horn section. Thematically, it's about the suicide crisis at the intersection of Dutcher's Indigenous and queer communities. "All the lyrics from ['Ancestors Too Young'] are coming from just hearing people talk about that experience of loss, experiencing that in my own way, and trying to interpret that," he told CBC Music, referring to a trip he took to Northern Ontario where he listened to parents share the story of losing their child to suicide. Dutcher, who identifies as two-spirit and queer, was guided by Lydia Nibley's 2009 documentary, Two Spirits, during his album process, and one quote from the documentary is more specifically felt in this song: "The place where two discriminations meet is a dangerous place to live."

"We can get down on ourselves and not realize that there's actually magic there that exists," Dutcher said. "You're a medicine as you come in and offer that to people." And there is magic in this track, one that both grieves and remembers. 

Recommended if you like:

Allison Russell, Beverley Glenn-Copeland, Elisapie, Feist. 

Summer activity pairing:

Motewolonuwok is an album meant to be both felt and heard; you'll want to plug it into headphones as you walk in the woods, newly fallen leaves crunching under your feet.

Don't miss Shortlist Summer: a season-long showcase of the 10 albums shortlisted for the 2024 Polaris Music Prize. Read the weekly Polaris Shortlist Shortcut feature at cbcmusic.ca/polaris and tune into The Ten radio special every Sunday night at 6 p.m. (6:30 NT) at cbc.ca/listen.