Plaskett to release conceptual project

On April 17, the day before his 45th birthday, Joel Plaskett will release 44.

A conceptual follow-up to his Juno-award winning triple record, Three, 44 is a visionary project comprised of four, 11-song records, packaged together and connected thematically. Four years in the making, the songs were recorded in Dartmouth, Memphis, Nashville and Toronto with 33 different musicians.

The first single from the first album, Head Over Heels Into Heaven, was co-written by Joel and Mo Kenney and features The Emergency

(Dave Marsh and Chris Pennell).

Musically, 44 showcases many of Plaskett's talents and the hallmarks that have established him as one of Canada's best known contemporary songwriters – catchy rock ’n’ roll, delicate acoustic ballads and sonic production experiments bounce around the albums. Varying themes run across the records, but at its heart, 44 is an imaginative, musical rumination on trying to slow down and grow up in a rapidly accelerating world.

The first album, 41: Carried Away, is a traveling record. It starts in Memphis with the song Collusion, old memories colliding with the present and the journey begins. The second album, 42: Just Passing Through, playfully evokes the feeling of returning home to an unfamiliar landscape, while, 43: If There's Another Road, is an introspective, nighttime transition from lost to found. The fourth and final album,44: The Window Inn, documents the arrival at a personal destination, summed up in the last song, "A Benefit 4 Dreamland."

PLaskett will kick off a national tour on April 16 with a sold-out show at the Marigold Cultural Centre in Truro, N.S., featuring The Emergency and Mo Kenney.

He then heads to British Columbia for shows before eventually making his way back to the East Coast with stops in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador.