Canadian Folk Legend Ken Whiteley Releases His 37th Album 'Keep Going'

A Mariposa Hall of Fame Inductee and Genie Award Winner Delivers a Blues and Gospel-Rooted Meditation on Perseverance, Presence, and the Power of Carrying On – Plus a 75th Birthday Bash at Hugh’s Room Live on May 2

Canadian folk legend Ken Whiteley releases his 37th album, ‘Keep Going,’ today via Pyramid Records, distributed worldwide by Distrokid. A multi-instrumentalist, producer, and composer who has been at the heart of Canadian roots music for more than six decades, Whiteley is a Mariposa Festival Hall of Fame inductee, a Genie Award winner for Best Original Song in a Canadian feature film, and the recipient of Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Maple Blues Awards and Folk Music Ontario. With ‘Keep Going,’ he delivers his most thematically unified and deeply felt work in years – a record that draws from the oldest wells of blues and gospel to speak directly to the moment we are all living through.

The album’s origin is characteristically Whiteley: in February 2025, he slipped on ice and fractured a bone in his ankle. Unable to walk for a month, he sat down, picked up his guitar, and began writing. “Keeping going in these troubled times is an expression of powerful determination and survival, tempered by the recognition of earthly transience,” he reflects. “I immersed myself in old blues and gospel tunes and that message kept coming up. May listeners also find the inspiration to keep going.” The result is 12 tracks – seven originals, four classics that speak urgently to today, and one co-write with Eve Goldberg – recorded at Casa Wroxton Studio in Toronto with engineer Nik Tjelios and mastered by Harris Newman at Grey Market Mastering in Montreal.

Listen on Spotify here: https://open.spotify.com/album/5XasPew4nyceIhk97YiGeO?si=tD7iTqxPT4yfXe6P3aYeJg&nd=1&dlsi=3faa1f7895134130

The breadth of Whiteley’s musicianship across ‘Keep Going’ is remarkable even by his own extraordinary standards. He sings and plays acoustic guitar, resophonic guitar, mandolin, Hammond organ, piano, mandola, mandocello, harmonica, string bass, electric bass, and washboard across the 12 tracks – joined by a cast of trusted collaborators including vocalist Ciceal Levy, drummer Bucky Berger, his brother Chris Whiteley on harmonica and cornet, and bassist Gord Mowat. One of the album’s most moving moments is ‘Reaching Higher,’ featuring the late vocalist Betty Richardson – Jackie Richardson’s younger sister, who passed away in 2018 – on a demo track Whiteley returned to and knew was worth sending into the world. Guest vocalists Eve Goldberg and Pat Patrick appear on the closing co-write ‘At The End Of The Day,’ a twilight meditation on transition and the voices we hear at the edge of night.

The closing track’s lyrics carry the album’s spirit with quiet grace: “I hear something calling me / taking me far away / I hear something calling me / at the end of the day.” That sense of listening for something beyond the noise of the present moment runs throughout ‘Keep Going.’ From the lead track ‘Everybody’s Got to Be Tried’ – built from a phrase remembered from Appalachian banjo legend Frank Proffitt and performed on a 1928 National guitar – to the mandolin-quartet arrangement of Noah Lewis’s 1929 jug stomper ‘Going to German,’ Whiteley draws unbroken lines between the music of the past and the challenges of the present. “It’s heartbreaking that the systemic imprisonment of young people of colour is still with us,” he writes in his notes. “What I embrace in this song is the affirmation that ‘I’ll be back some old day.’ Keep going.”

The stature Whiteley brings to this record has been earned across one of the richest careers in Canadian music. Beginning his public performances at the age of 14, he has shared stages and recordings with Pete Seeger, John Hammond Jr., Blind John Davis, Stan Rogers, and Tom Paxton. He changed the course of Canadian children’s music through his work with Raffi, Fred Penner, and dozens of others, and has frequently collaborated with his brother Chris Whiteley and niece and nephew Jenny and Daniel Whiteley. He has written more than 400 songs, which have been covered by more than a dozen artists, and has released four albums since 2020 alone – including CFMA award nominees ‘Long Time Travelling’ and ‘So Glad I’m Here.’ These days, as he notes with characteristic wit, he is as likely to be performing at a yoga ashram as a bar, drawing on the full storehouse of blues, folk, and gospel to make music that brings people together.

TOUR DATES:

March 28 – Guelph, ON – Guelph House Concerts

April 4-5 – Val Morin, QC – Concerts & Workshop, Sivananda Yoga Ashram (Easter Weekend) – sivanandacanada.org/camp

May 1 – Ottawa, ON – Gil’s Hootenanny ‘Songs of Protest, Songs of Hope,’ First Unitarian Church, 30 Cleary Ave., 7:00 p.m. – gilshootenanny.ca

May 2 – Toronto, ON – Hugh’s Room Live – 75th Birthday Bash and Album Celebration with Bucky Berger, Ben Whiteley, Jesse Whiteley, David Wall, Ciceal Levy, Pat Patrick – Tickets: showpass.com/ken-whiteley-75th-birthday-bash

May 16 – North York, ON – Afro Metis Anthem Peace Concert, Don Heights Auditorium, 18 Wynford Dr., Suite 103, 2:00 p.m.

May 23 – Caledon, ON – Whole Village Eco Village Concert

May 28 – Burlington, ON – Retired Teachers’ Luncheon Concert

June 7 – Orangeville, ON – Orangeville Blues & Jazz Festival, Orangeville Opera House with Ben Whiteley, Bucky Berger, Ciceal Levy – orangevillebluesandjazz.ca

June 23 – Roseville, ON – Detweiler Meeting House Concert, 3445 Roseville Rd., Ayr