Jeremy Dutcher's rematriation

In conversation with the Wolastoq innovator

Every time I see or hear Jeremy Dutcher being interviewed, I enjoy his presence even more: thoughtful, generous, funny, challenging, engaging and warm. What’s not to love?

(This week’s live music listings are here.)

Motewolonuwok is Dutcher’s long-awaited second album, following up his 2018 Polaris- and Juno-winner Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa, and it came out in October. He’s okay if you can’t pronounce either title correctly, but greatly appreciates the effort you will put into trying. Every small act of engagement with an endangered language — that of the Wolastoq people, from what my people call the Saint John River in New Brunswick — counts.

Jeremy Dutcher headlines Massey Hall this Saturday night, with U.S. Girls opening (that’s one hell of a double bill). Here’s a recent performance he filmed for, uh, the Grammys:

And here’s an excellent piece by Emilie Hanskamp, which was last month’s cover story in Exclaim!.

This time last year, while the new album was being finished, I had an in-depth on-stage conversation with Jeremy Dutcher as part of Massey College’s music salon series.

For paid subscribers only, what follows is an edited transcipt of that delightful conversation, in which he discusses Nina Simone, the New Constellations tour that launched him into a national conversation, Mi’kMaq regional slurs, award shows, opera, “rematriation” vs. repatriation, “silent speakers” of lost languages, the inherently “incarceral” nature of museums, and something that might get him in trouble.