Photos: Cara Luft Returns With First Solo Album in 13 Years, MY HEART WILL ALWAYS BE

Cara Luft is releasing her first solo album in more than 13 years, 'My Heart Will Always Be,' arriving on streaming services November 6.

An old timer walked up to Luft after a show one night and offered her a free banjo. That moment of pure generosity became 'The Banjo Is a Gift,' a rollicking tribute to John Hartford that features six banjos, Grammy winning banjo player Alison Brown and enough joy to light up a prairie winter. It's also a perfect snapshot of 'My Heart Will Always Be,' a warm, big-hearted record built on friendship, kindness, and the healing power of music.

Few artists in Canadian music can point to a résumé like Cara Luft's. She's a founding member of two of the country's most celebrated folk groups, THE WAILIN' JENNYS and THE SMALL GLORIES, and she has built a rich solo career alongside them, with 'My Heart Will Always Be' adding a bold new chapter. Each of those projects carries her fingerprints: the gorgeous harmonies, the fearless banjo, the warmth that turns a concert hall into a living room. Helping launch one cherished ensemble is an achievement most musicians would happily build a career on. Helping launch two, then stepping back into the spotlight on her own with some of the strongest songs of her life, puts Luft in rarefied company.

Along the way, she has won multiple awards and a devoted following for the way she pairs heart on her sleeve lyrics with melodies that lodge themselves in your ear for days. Fans of Gillian Welch, Sarah Harmer, Neko Case, Brandi Carlile, Lucinda Williams, Patty Griffin and Linda Thompson will find a kindred spirit here.

The album grew out of a season of enormous change. Around her 50th birthday, Luft bought her first home, navigated perimenopause, received an ADHD diagnosis, and saw The Small Glories, her duo of a decade, come to a close. Rethinking how she wanted to live and work, she landed on one simple principle: make music with friends who embody kindness, consideration and generosity of spirit. That led to a trusted crew she lovingly calls The Quadrangle of Awesomeness: Liverpool session musician and producer Scott Poley, Cranbrook, B.C. musician and songwriter Clayton Parsons, and Vancouver engineer Julia Graff. Parsons also became her songwriting partner, and every original song on the album is a Luft and Parsons co-write.

Together they recorded the album over 12 days in Vancouver, with Luft, Poley and Parsons singing and playing nearly everything themselves. Grammy winning engineer D. James Goodwin mixed it, and the guest list includes Brown on banjo and The Weakerthans' John K. Samson, Canada's prairie punk rock poet. The whole project was funded entirely by Luft's fans. In the spirit of choosing people before platforms, she's releasing the album first on physical formats at her live shows, honouring the magic of sharing and hearing music in person, before it reaches streaming services this fall. It's out on Blue Case Tunes.

The songs cover a lot of beautiful ground. The title track and focus single is upbeat and harmony rich, with double banjos driving a song about coming home to yourself and finding self love on the other side of grief, sadness and relief. 'Find Love,' featuring a melodic hook from JD Edwards, has a folk-rock groove and a message as simple as it is powerful: love is the great equalizer. 'Garbage Hill' is a duet with Samson and a love song to Luft's adopted hometown of Winnipeg, named for the city's tallest hill, a former dump turned park that overlooks a rail yard. Nobody would call it picturesque, which is exactly what makes it so quintessentially Winnipeg.

Luft honours her folk upbringing with two traditional songs. 'The Snows They Melt the Soonest,' from the British Isles, comes from Dick Gaughan's 'Handful of Earth,' one of her top 10 desert island albums, and features plucked piano strings and a banjo and guitar duet. The Irish song 'Lagan Love' is hauntingly beautiful, a vocal duet and another banjo and guitar conversation. 'Doubt and Belief' is a hopeful, harmony stacked celebration of renewal with blazing solos, while 'Come Undone' slows things down to sit with someone in their grief, a tender reminder that it's ok to not be ok. 'My Maureen' is a toe tapping old time love song for a gambling, chain smoking, dancing grandma, sung from the perspective of her lifelong partner.

And the finale is pure fun. Luft listened to Buddy Holly constantly as a kid, and 'Not Fade Away' has always been one of her favourites, so in honour of turning 50 and doing whatever she wants, she and the band cut a rocking version of it. It's the sound of an artist radiating clarity, freedom and hard-won self trust, and having the time of her life doing it.

Luft will be on the road across Canada this fall and winter, including a run of 'Girls Do Boys' shows on Vancouver Island and Salt Spring Island with Helen Austin, Shari Ulrich and Claire Coupland, as four women songwriters cover some of their favourite male songwriters.

Heart Will Always Be Track Listing

My Heart Will Always Be

Find Love

Garbage Hill (featuring John K. Samson)

The Snows They Melt the Soonest

Doubt and Belief

The Banjo Is a Gift (featuring Alison Brown)

Come Undone

My Maureen

Lagan Love

Not Fade Away

Cara Luft Tour Dates

October 16 to 18 Haliburton, ON @ Haliburton Fall Folk Camp (Instructor)

October 20 Brighton, ON @ Trinity St. Andrew's United Church (with Clayton Parsons)

October 21 Lanark, ON @ The Poland Church (with Clayton Parsons)

October 22 Wakefield, QC @ The Black Sheep Inn (with Clayton Parsons)

October 23 Ottawa, ON @ Red Bird (with Clayton Parsons, Low Tickets)

October 24 Kitchener, ON @ The Registry Theatre (with Joe Jencks)

October 25 Toronto, ON @ The Rivoli (Matinee, with Clayton Parsons)

October 30 Winnipeg, MB @ Avalon Arts (with Rob McLaren, Sold Out)

November 4 Vancouver, BC @ Notional Space (Big Sing Evening: School of Rock for Folkies)

November 5 Vancouver, BC @ Notional Space (with Clayton Parsons)

November 6 to 8 Cumberland, BC @ Woodstove Festival (with Clayton Parsons, Sold Out)

November 14 Langley, BC @ BEZ Arts Hub (Solo)

December 5 Thunder Bay, ON @ DaVinci Centre

December 12 Los Barriles, MX @ Venue TBA

December 16 Winnipeg, MB @ The Park Theatre

December 21 Gimli, MB @ The Ship and Plough (Winter Solstice Concert)

January 13 Duncan, BC @ Khowatzun Heritage Centre (Girls Do Boys)

January 14 Courtenay, BC @ The Regier Theatre (Girls Do Boys)

January 15 Parksville, BC @ Knox United (Girls Do Boys)

January 16 Victoria, BC @ The CODA (Girls Do Boys)

January 17 Salt Spring Island, BC @ Saltspring Folk Club (Girls Do Boys)