With his sophomore album coming next month, Dan Cugnet has released one of the songs in advance today. 'Summer on the Souris' features Dan's smooth baritone vocals paired with Producer Bart McKay's mellow arrangement of acoustic guitar, violin, and mandolin.

If you're from around the Weyburn area, the song may feel close to home.

"It's kind of a little bit of a love letter to the valley I grew up on," he shared. "The river goes through town, so everybody is familiar with it, and I grew up just a few miles outside of town on it, and what kind of seemed like the edge of the world, you know?" 

"We were right at the edge of sort of the badlands and the PFRA, as it just keeps moving down on the river, and of course, when I was a kid, Nickle Lake wasn't as big then, and neither was, you know, Mainprize. Rafferty wasn't there. So that little river was sort of the constant, I guess, in my life, and everybody's life, and I think just being from the prairies and living where we do, we're so acutely aware of the seasons and time changing around us. It's not like some of these places that are warm all year round."

"We've got spring, summer, fall, winter and and I think we really feel them all, and at times we look forward to them, but they kind of mark the passage of time, too, for all of us, and we've all only got so many winters, and so many springs, so many summers..."

While admitting to leaning into the melancholy of the passing of time and facing one's own mortality with the song, Cugnet said it ultimately serves as a love letter to the place where he grew up, and the song comes from the heart.

"It's a little more intimate for to me to write," he added. "Sometimes you can write stuff and it's not as close to you, but this song is pretty close."

Cugnet's new album '45' will be released on digital music platforms on March 10th. 

Find 'Summer on the Souris' on Apple Music and Spotify. 

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