The Ones Ahead

Beverly-Glenn Copeland releases The Ones Ahead – his first new album in 20 years via Transgressive Records. For decades, the Pennsylvania-born, Canada-based singer, songwriter, and composer has illuminated questions of human interconnectedness with his sincere, searching voice and nimble melodicism. His new album, The Ones Ahead – his first collection of new music in nearly two decades – deepens his explorations into the ways all of us must carry each other forward into the next world. The songs on The Ones Ahead draw inspiration from a wealth of traditions, from American jazz to Irish fiddle songs to West African percussion. The spirited, polyrhythmic “Africa Calling” opens The Ones Ahead, a song without lyrics that honours Glenn-Copeland’s West African heritage. The Ones Ahead dexterously weaves together poignant themes: the need for love and mutual care in the face of destruction and uncertainty, the power people have when they reach out for each other, the ways that the wisdom of past generations can guide us along the path forward. The Ones Ahead cultivates a vibrant hope for this world and what it must become to survive. A new chapter in an expansive and unique body of work, Glenn-Copeland’s latest album offers flowering wisdom for the world to come, needed now more urgently than ever.