These days, Zachary Lucky is going where The Wind takes him.
The Wind is the Canadian folk and country artist’s sixth album, and it finds Lucky in a different, more peaceful place than his last album. Songs for Hard Times, which came out in 2021, was released in a hard time for musicians everywhere.
“I’ve been doing this for 14 years, I might finally be getting better at it,” he joked.
The Saskatchewan-born, Ontario-planted 37-year-old is coming off a very busy year of touring — 40 shows in 40 days in the States, a jam-packed east coast run, a quick sprint up to Northern Ontario — and has plans for more tours in the near future.
“I somehow now have two agents in Europe, so it looks like there will be two tours there in the next year,” he said softly.
“It’s been really busy all summer and fall, and when this album came out, I am getting 23-24,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, which is crazy. That’s a lot of people!" he said.
“I want to believe that’s 14 years of hard work, of planting seeds, watering them, hoping that they’re going to mature into something. I think it’s partly that, partly there’s been a real shift over the past five, 10 years of people getting into roots music, Americana music. Everyday Joes are listening to it.”
But it's likely more than that.
“It’s partly that, but also, with this album, I tried to be really smart. I tried to do literally everything. Pushed every angle I could, made an insane amount of content, hammered radio playlists. Everything I have learned, I did for this album," he told OrilliaMatters.
It has paid off, with more followers all over the world, successful past tours, including a sold-out show in Montreal, future tours lined up, good merch sales, and an album release show for The Wind at the Orillia Opera House on Nov. 27.
“The Wind wasn’t even in the works,” he explained. “I was playing a tour with my buddy Miles (Zurawell who plays Dobro), and we were playing some of these new songs, and he said, 'You know, if we don’t make this record next week, when we get back from tour, we’re never gonna do it.' And in hindsight, I think he was absolutely right. We were ready and I just made it happen.”
Lucky reached out to a buddy, Benjamin Dakota Rogers, who had urged him to come down and make a record at his farm/recording studio near Scotland, Ontario.
“He said he wasn’t doing anything, so come on down. So, on one week’s notice, we went down and made a record. It was very chill, a lot of it was actually recorded almost in the dark; his studio is a very dim, peaceful place.”
The Wind is doing very well. In addition to the much larger audience on Spotify and other streaming platforms, Lucky has had excellent reviews, airtime on more radio stations, including the BBC, and a “thing” on PBS.
“With the music business these days, you have to be more than a musician," Lukcey explained. "You have to kind of be, the instigator. There’s no rhyme or reason, you just have to do it and see what happens."
Instigation has paid off.
"We had a lot of firsts with this record, did a lot of big things, and there were definitely moments where we were thinking, what are we doing here? Like we are out of our league. But I’m sure everyone feels like that the first time they are somewhere new like that," said Lucky.
Lucky continues his busy streak, with shows for The Wind throughout Central Ontario and Quebec for the rest of the year. This winter, he will be rolling back through Western Canada to take the album home.
A full band album release show in support of The Wind will be happening in Toronto at Burdock on Nov. 26, and in Orillia on Nov. 27 at the Orillia Opera House Studio Theatre. Tickets here.
“I’m forever grateful that fans are coming to shows, buying merch,” he said. “I don’t take anything for granted. In the end, we’ve made a record we are really proud of, the one we wanted to make, and if people are appreciating that, that’s icing on the cake. I’m really looking forward to showcasing this album to the world.”
