Love is Hard is an album by Canadian poet and songwriter Robert Priest
Release Date: February 14, 2022
The album debuted in December 2021 on the CBC Montreal radio show Let’s Go
Listen now on…
YouTube | Spotify | Apple Music
ADVANCE NOTICES
“It’s controversial yet riveting at the same time. Robert Priest is an incredible poet.” – Duke Eatmon, music columnist on CBC Montreal’s Let’s Go
“Love is Hard is superb. The Ballad of Muhammad Ali is a masterpiece.” – Mendelson Joe, painter, singer/songwriter, activist
On the Ballad of Muhammad Ali: “How funky. It’s like an illustrated book with the music as the pictures. Gorgeous. ” – Jennifer Yoon, CBC Montreal
“This album brings the listener straight back to more pleasant times from the first ripping track, Love Is Hard to Stephen’s Super Prisons which is musically brilliant with an edge. Robert’s lyrics are as ever searing as they are poignantly bittersweet. I’m Not The Enemy is a lovely lament and I couldn’t agree with Robert more when I say I Don’t Wanna Go to Scarborough. Beautiful musical poetry record from a maverick, 21st century artisan/activist.” – Alannah Myles, Grammy and JUNO Award winning singer of the worldwide #1 hit Black Velvet
ABOUT THE ALBUM
At the best of times love is the way we lead our lives. That’s the idea of love that got this collection of songs going. Not just romantic love but love for humanity and justice and the earth too. Any of the above can sometimes be easy but give love long enough and it will get difficult. Like adolescent love that always has something to prove or the love that is compassion and aches for victims of wars and the incarcerated. The love of heroes who inspire us towards the courage it takes to achieve difficult goals. And sometimes the most difficult love is the love of self – a self all too often mired in emptiness whether it be the useful emptiness of a bowl or not. We might love the idea of justice but the justice system doesn’t necessarily love us back. There can be injustice in justice and justice might not want to go to couples counselling with us. How about the possibility that our love for the earth might be unrequited? Earth might send us hurricanes and earthquakes. It might lift up its oceans and swamp us. It might rear up stony prisons or turn its locusts loose on fields of famine. It’s easy to love the planet with a full stomach and safe harbour but the big love – the wide love is hard. It can make you crawl. It can make you rage and whimper. That’s the kind of love that tries to sound its name in these songs. Love that thinks you might be the enemy. Love that knows if you’re lying. Love you need. Love you can’t always have. Love. It sure ain’t easy.
TRACKS (SONGS AND SPOKEN WORD)
Love Is Hard 3:44 (words and music by Robert Priest and Allen Booth)
Stephen’s Super Prisons 3:34 (words and music by Robert Priest and Allen Booth)
I Don’t Wanna Go to Scarborough 3:12 (words and music by Robert Priest and Allen Booth)
My Emptiness 3:21 (words and music by Robert Priest and Allen Booth)
I’m Not the Enemy 3:17 (words and music by Robert Priest and Micah Barnes)
Ten Civilians 3:53 (words and music by Robert Priest and Allen Booth)
Rights Left 1:01 (poem by Robert Priest with music by Bob Wiseman)
The Ballad of Muhammad Ali 3:20 (poem by Robert Priest with music by Bob Wiseman)
The Peace of Many Pieces 4:28 (words and music by Robert Priest and Allen Booth)
TRACKS IN ORDER OF RELEASE DATE
Love Is Hard
3:44
(release date: February 14, 2022)
Words and music by Robert Priest and Allen Booth
This Valentine’s Day, after you celebrate the wonder of romantic love, I invite you to get real with me and admit that sometimes it ain’t easy. If it was… why so many tears and so much heartache? Some people spend a lifetime looking for the formula for love. Have I found it? You’ll have to listen to the song to find out.
The Ballad of Muhammad Ali
3:20
(release date: February 25, 2022)
Poem by Robert Priest with music by Bob Wiseman
On February 25, 1964, Muhammad Ali (then Cassius Clay) shocked the world by defeating Sonny Liston to win the heavyweight championship of the world. Like Martin Luther King, Muhammad Ali receives universal praise but not everyone knows what he stood for – even though he never tried to hide it. Funny how that works. Anyway… I wrote a poem about Ali that attempts to float like a butterfly, and Bob Wiseman set it to music that stings like a bee. Check it out.
I Don’t Wanna Go to Scarborough
3:12
(release date: March 2, 2022)
Words and music by Robert Priest and Allen Booth
Did you know that World Teen Mental Wellness Day is on March 2nd? Me neither until I looked it up. When I was a teenager in the 1960s I lived in a Scarborough that was oppressively white and tight – a Scarborough where the only escape was a trip to the wild bluffs that overlook the lake. Nice scenery for sure, but what I got up to there did nothing for my mental health. To find out why I still hate going back… listen to the song.
Stephen’s Super Prisons
3:34
(release date: March 20, 2022)
Words and music by Robert Priest and Allen Booth
Thanks to former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Canada has some huge and awful prisons that it doesn’t need. One of them – Toronto’s Metro South Detention Centre – has been rife with Covid since the first case was detected in the prison on March 20, 2020. To celebrate (NOT) this day – and the Stephen – I invite you to listen to this song.
I’m Not the Enemy
3:17
(release date: April 2, 2022)
Words and music by Robert Priest and Micah Barnes
April is known as “Second Chance Month.” Are there any among us who have never needed a second chance? Or a third one? I’m not proud to admit it, but I once saw a look in my loved one’s eyes that branded me… not just as a fool or a rogue…. but as the enemy. Ever had that happen to you? Ever given someone a look like that? Listen to this song.
My Emptiness
3:21
(release date: April 8, 2022)
Words and music by Robert Priest and Allen Booth
In many parts of the world, April 8th is celebrated as Buddha’s birthday. I’ve long felt drawn to Buddhism (though hopefully not in an overly attached way since Buddha wouldn’t like that). I find it hard to let go – of bad habits, bad ideas and other stuff. Buddhist practices seem to help. So I invite you to celebrate his birthday… and your own journey to nirvana… by listening to this song.
Rights Left
1:01
(release date: April 17, 2022)
Poem by Robert Priest with music by Bob Wiseman
When the Canadian Constitution was repatriated on 17 April 1982, a whole bunch of human rights were enshrined in law. Great stuff. But I’m worried. So worried that I wrote a poem about it (and Bob Wiseman set it to music). If you’re worried too…. or even if you’re not… listen to this.
Ten Civilians
3:53
(release date: May 24, 2022)
Words and music by Robert Priest and Allen Booth
The UN has proclaimed the last full week in May as Protection of Civilians Week. So how’s that going? A hundred years ago your average war killed about ten soldiers for every one civilian. Modern wars have changed that. Now for every soldier killed, ten civilians die. Who thanks civilians for their “service”? Where are the monuments to our glorious civilian dead? I haven’t seen many. That’s why I wrote this song.
The Peace of Many Pieces
4:28
(release date: TBA)
Words and music by Robert Priest and Allen Booth
You can’t make peace alone. Except maybe with yourself. But this song isn’t about that. It’s about how we can all get there together. Check it out.
HOW THIS ALBUM CAME TO BE
Robert had been wanting to work with Edie Brickell producer Bob Wiseman for years but it wasn’t until Wiseman heard the searing protest song Ten Civilians that he finally agreed to come on board. The song is based on a shocking statistic. In wars of a hundred years ago the ratio of soldier to civilian deaths was ten to one. In our time these numbers are reversed: ten civilians are killed for every member of the military. Both Wiseman and Priest knew that the song was the perfect vehicle to get this vital information out there. “It’s just a great protest song in the tradition of Dylan or Guthrie” Wiseman opined. So began the album, Love is Hard. As well as songs of protest, there are passionate love songs, full-on rockers, tuneful introspections, political rants, and a spoken word piece about Muhammad Ali that Mendelson Joe has called “a masterpiece.”
BIOS
ROBERT PRIEST – SINGER, SONGWRITER (SOCAN) SOCAN
Award winning singer/songwriter Robert Priest is one of the few Canadians who has achieved bestseller status as both a songwriter and a poet. The fiery rock ballad, Song Instead Of A Kiss, co-written with Alannah Myles and Nancy Simmonds, topped the Canadian charts and still receives airplay around the world. His book of poetry, Reading The Bible Backwards, was a Canadian poetry best seller, with sales only exceeded by Leonard Cohen. Robert’s sixth and latest album, Love is Hard, produced by Bob Wiseman, extends his output with passionate love songs, hilarious rants, and a searing protest song: Ten Civilians. A graduate of the Toronto live music scene, Robert’s rock video Congo Toronto was in regular rotation on Much Music and established his unique place in the rock poet canon. A YouTube performance of his song One Crumb has received over 100,000 views.
BOB WISEMAN – ARRANGER, PRODUCER
Bob Wiseman is a JUNO Award winning songwriter and producer. Highlights of his career include producing Ron Sexsmith, Grammy award winner Edie Brickell, and Member of Parliament Andrew Cash. He is also the accordionist on The Bare Naked Ladies hit If I Had a Million Dollars.
L. STU YOUNG – MIXING, MASTERING
JUNO Award winner L. Stu Young is best known for his work with Prince on Musicology and 3121. He has also manned the boards on the gamut of Canada’s best known recording talent from Anne Murray to Triumph.
PERSONNEL
BACKGROUND SINGERS
Krystyne Bowen
Wesley Smith
Katasha J
Vanessa Forgue
GUITAR
Bob Cohen
SAX
Brodie West
DRUMS
Mark Hundevad
PERCUSSION
Blake Howard
BASS
Julie Nesbelch
STRINGS
Max Blalystock
Leo Bloom
PIANO, ORGAN, SYNTHESIZER
Bob Wiseman