SPILL NEW MUSIC: SKYDIGGERS ANNOUNCE NEW ALBUM ‘WEST MONTROSE’ | REIMAGINE “ALICE GRAHAM”

SKYDIGGERS ANNOUNCE NEW ALBUM WEST MONTROSE | REIMAGINE “ALICE GRAHAM”

SKYDIGGERS PRODUCTIONS LTD.

Forty years of playing music together has a special ring to it, one that Skydiggers’ co-founders Josh Finlayson and Andy Maize are thrilled to celebrate in 2026. To mark the milestone anniversary, the duo revisit old songs and cover some of their favourites, all packaged in a 10-song collection titled West Montrose, out June 5th.

“In 1986, after several years of playing in separate bands where you needed a full band set up just to play a song, Josh and I started hanging out, smoking a little pot, playing snooker at the Squeeze Club, listening to music, watching Guys and Dolls on video (Brando sings!), and MuchMusic on TV (Max Headroom!), and talking about stripping it all down and going back to the basics: one acoustic guitar and two voices playing and singing traditional folk and old time country songs by Jimmie Rodgers, The Delmore Brothers, Hank Williams, Buddy Holly, Doc Watson, to name a few,” shares Maize. “The idea being that we could, and would, go anywhere to play for anyone, anytime. And so we did… we played in cottages and classrooms and beverage rooms and cabana rooms all across this country. Forty years and a thousand gigs later, with the help of the inspired playing of Jimmy Bowskill and singing of Jessy Bell Smith, we return to our fountain of youth; to the songs that inspired us and that we continue to sing to this day. Back to West Montrose…” Alongside the album announcement, the band shares a new recording of “Alice Graham,” originally from their iconic 1995 album Road Radio.

“Alice Graham was an ancestor of mine from County Fermanagh, Ireland, who settled sometime in the first half of the 19th century with her husband Henry Maize in the rolling hills of Northumberland County, just north of Port Hope, Ontario,” says Maize. “There they built a life together, raised a family, and planted a kernel of an idea many generations later in me about the importance of family, of place, of generational memory, and of remaining independent in the face of a changing world.”

The recording process of West Montrose took Maize and Finlayson to their friend Jimmy Bowskill’s Ganaraska Recording Studio, just north of Cobourg, Ontario. “We’d been hearing great things about the studio and knew what an instinctive and intuitive musician he is to work with,” says Finlayson. “So in June 2025, Andy and I went up for a couple of days. We wanted to document some traditional tunes and covers we’ve played over the years, along with some older Skydiggers material reimagined with new acoustic arrangements.”

Finlayson continues, “We recorded these 10 songs live, with the three of us in the same room, Andy or I singing, me on acoustic guitar, and Jimmy playing guitar, dobro, or mandolin.” Bowskill later added a stand-up bass as an overdub on most tracks, and Jessy Bell Smith added her voice later. “West Montrose was the name we called ourselves as a duo and also the first recording Andy and I made together in 1986/87. Forty years on, this collaboration with Jimmy Bowskill and Jessy Bell Smith is both a look back and a path forward.” Skydiggers will celebrate the release with a special acoustic, sold-out show at Toronto’s Hugh’s Room on June 5, with special guests Brooks & Bowskill.

Skydiggers
West Montrose
(Skydiggers Productions LTD.)
Release Date: June 5, 2026

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Photo Credit: Heather Pollock