Tim Chaisson first appeared on my radar in an episode of Steven Garrity’s Acts of Volition Radio 8 years ago. He was Timothy back then — his old timothychaisson.com domain seems to be a Japanese motorcycle site now — and only 17 years old. Steven played a track, Stay, from Tim’s “Something Acoustic” album and called him “the beginning of a really great songwriter.” He was right.

Tim’s the kind of young hipster who plays the kind of clubs that start up after my bedtime, so I’m left to catch his band dates like the bandshell in Souris (which is, don’t get me wrong, a pretty good place to see any Chaisson). I somewhat famously predicted, 5 years ago, that “the Timothy Chaisson song all over again will be used as closing credits power ballad on a prime-time television U.S. program in the next 12 months”, a prophecy that came (sort of) true 3 years later.

I really, really like the kind of impromptu videos that Tim’s made over the years — like this one in Toronto and this one at UPEI. And he played a lovely acoustic set at Zap Your PRAM, five years ago this month.

Which is, all to say, in the intervening years I’ve become a big fan myself. And so why the appearance of new album by Tim is a Big Deal. I’ve been listening to The Other Side, released just a few weeks ago, all day. I can’t stop: it’s a great piece of varied work, pop built on a bedrock of east coast traditional. From Long Road of Love (backstory):

Caught a teardrop from the sky.
You’re the saddest girl on PEI.
You should never love another guy.
But you’ll never know if you never try.

You can watch a track-by-track commentary on each song on the album on Tim’s YouTube channel. Which is where you’ll also find this video, feature Serena Ryder, for the track Beat This Heart:

You can buy The Other Side where quality albums are sold, including iTunes and from Tim’s label. You’ll be happy you did.