"I'm sick of doing straight time."

Here are four new Canadian albums that, to play off of (and defang, sorry) the famous songwriter's above lyric, mostly avoid the straight time of "jazz" but come from our people on both the local and national scenes:

• Québecois prog guitars meet fiddling meet jazz trumpet
• John Hollenbeck's band with Anna Webber has a new member
• Indigenous country-rock rushes down from up the coast
• The Boss gets stripped-down with bass clarinet

Greenhouse Ensemble - Mezzanine

Not even the "Sweet Home Alabama" riff's twang is out of scope for the seven-piece Québec ensemble: "Nikki" brings that into a mix that already has prog guitars, fiddle tounes and turlutes, and wordless vocals ranging from "The Great Gig in the Sky"-esque pipes on the opening track to singing along with said fiddle tunes (that's le turlutage). Then there's a wonderfully Québecois electric bass moment, plus improv/drone interludes where the breathy trumpet playing keeps the jazz influence. Within this eclectic band lies a lot of heritage from their province's progressive music history, Harmonium to Uzeb; they're maximal where l'Oumigmag is minimal. There's something post-apocalyptic or nostalgic, can't decide which, about where it ends up by the last two tracks' arpeggios and hums and whistles. Yet there's an innocence about all this exploration: the ladder to the stars on the cover goes to the celestial shredding of "A Whole Step Away". (CD)

GEORGE - Looking for Consonance

Drummer-composer John Hollenbeck started his four-piece band GEORGE after covid, originally naming it for Floyd and continuing to bring new names into an omni-George concept every since. The constant members are chiquitamagic, whom Hollenbeck refers to by her government first name, Isis, in the notes; and Anna Webber, who plays with Hollenbeck in her Simple Trio, is originally from Vancouver, and is featured at Hard Rubber's Three World Premieres concert next weekend. Webber plays flute and saxophones. Sarah Rossy, whose Lucid is one of the most noteworthy Canadian creative albums of 2025 that I didn't make it to covering, replaces previous member Aurora Nealand. The opening track "bounce" is a tour de force with riffing, a saxophone blast that'll make you check your phone for an alert, and phaser-like vocalizations. Keys fill the bass role. What starts as a rush of experimental energy ends up feeling much more accessible by the penultimate track, "Johnson". The two vocal features, Rossy on "Nassam Alayna-LHawa" and chiquitamagic on "Unicornio", are sensitive and lush. (Out of Your Head Records, CD & LP)

Caley Watts - River's Daughter

"I am the river's daughter / born from the Bella Coola", Caley Watts sings on the title track. She previously sings on track four, "I talk to giants / and they listen to the stories that I keep", matched with both indigenous background vocals and gently rocking guitars. The two-five-one chord progression is to the Great American Songbook as the two-four-one is to "alt-country", and Watts makes use of the latter on songs like "Slow Burn" and "Sunflowers". The state-of-the-world anxiety ode "Rushing In" is like that Zach Bryan and Kacey Musgraves song, but good. The drums are too potent to call the record folk. Watts co-produced with Jesse Zubot and recorded with John Raham at Afterlife Studios, employing the roots-meets-improv wrecking crew who work under billings from Terminal Station to Emad Armoush (along with international artists). The chorus harmonies are as dialed-in and dialed-back as Jim Lauderdale with Lu, and Chris Gestrin's organ and Watts' own banjo pop up as production treats. Watts plays the China Cloud on June 30th. (digital)

Nicholas Krgovich - Boss Tape

A sweet, downtempo Bruce Springsteen covers album with bass clarinet? Not a bad way for me to discover the music of Krgovich, a local who is adjacent to 1067 / Sugar Refinery folks like JP Carter, Ida Nilsen, and Dan Gaucher, as well as the likes of Veda Hille and Destroyer. Krgovich's keyboards are the main arranging ingredient, but it's the bass clarinet from Julia Chirka (his old bandmate in another project called p:ano) that plays the "Dancing in the Dark" riff. His vocal delivery, captured closely like he's trying not to wake someone, brings the confessional Boss to the foreground and leaves the working-class-hero part to be implied. On percussion is orchestral player Julia Chien; noted Titillator Thom Gill adorns with minimal guitar. The River and Born in the U.S.A. provide two songs each, while the other four songs come from relatively less famous albums and even from compilations. (Orindal Records, cassette)