For five decades, Myles Goodwyn has been known as the frontman of award-winning, platinum-selling, Canadian Music Hall of Fame hard rockers April Wine and, more recently, as a collaborative bluesman. With his second solo album, Myles Goodwyn & Friends of the Blues, released in 2008, Goodwyn announced a shift into the blues category that came was a slew of legendary guest performers, and doubled down on it a decade later for the release of the Myles Goodwyn and Friends of the Blues 2. Both albums won the East Coast Music Award for Blues Album of the Year.
Now, at the age of 72, years and year into a career of rocking and rolling, he has just gotten around to laying out his first-ever spiritual song, “Will the Last Voice I Hear Be an Angel.”
There’s a cautiously hesitant tone to the song; not a triumphant minor fall and major, but a distant cousin somewhere in the same family, as Goodwyn reflects on a life that “wasn’t always kind” and whether it will be sufficient to get his ticket punched at the Pearly Gates. It’s philosophical, theological, deeply personal, and even repentant. It’s the sort of thing you’d expect Macbeth might have churned out in the first act – had he opted for something in the Canadian music industry rather than King of Scotland – knowing full well that the scales might already be stacked against him.
More than simply questioning his place in the afterlife, Goodwyn puts in a request for a gentle passing and, as the title suggests, might he also receive a courtesy call just ahead of his scheduled departure. Rather than the near-universal humdrum concerns over the inconvenient end of service terms to mortality, it shows Goodwyn’s state of mind when it comes to asking the larger questions. We’ve skipped over the usual matter of ‘when’ to the implied ‘how’ and ‘why’ of it.
The single is the “youngest” to appear on Goodwyn’s upcoming album, Long Pants, which pulls from an extensive archive of previously unreleased material spanning back 40 years. As usual, Goodwyn has pulled in heavy talent to accompany him on the album, with Bruce Dixon (Oakley Band, Rita MacNeil, Roch Voisine), along with original April Wine bandmate Jim Henman, being featured on “Will the Last Voice I Hear be an Angel.”
The collection of songs promises to be Goodwyn’s most personal to-date collection of his most personal songs to date. Long Pants is set to be released in Summer 2021.