St. John’s, Newfoundland duo, FORTUNATE ONES, are here, Thursday, July 7th.

Doors open at 6 pm and show starts at 8pm. Tickets are available online through our website, www.TheUnionStreet.com, at the restaurant, or by calling us (902) 538-7787. Tickets are $30 (+tax) and NON-refundable.

==========================

Out of a period of isolation, introspection, and honesty, emerges That Was You and Me, the new album from Fortunate Ones.

With lush harmonies rising out of warm acoustic sounds, That Was You and Me finds Fortunate Ones reflecting on life, loss, grief, and hard times, and ultimately choosing love.

“Every part of our lives was changing. It was a big transition period, personally and professionally,” says Catherine Allan, one half of the St. John’s, Newfoundland duo, of the period in which these songs were written. After touring their second album, Hold Fast, the two craved time to retreat, reconnect, and create. Some of that time was granted on the heels of surgery.

“I had a tumour removed from my hand in the summer of 2019,” explains Andrew James O’Brien, the duo’s other half. Recovery left him unable to play guitar in any serious way-and slow days at home had him rethinking what a career in music would or could be.Instead, ajob at the picturesque Inn by Mallard Cottagefound O’Brienup early day after day, working the front desk. That workaday life led to one of the album’s stand out songs. “Day to Day”was born in the very morning routine it describes. “One morning, the sun is not up,” O’Brien remembers. “Crawl downstairs half awake. I'm literally frying eggs and out of nowhere-this song comes. I don't have a guitar. I've never written a song like this before, full melody and verses in my head. Immediately words are coming, ‘alarm clock howls/I find my legs/crawl down the stairs/and fry my eggs.’ I'm writing thisstanding over the stove onmy phonein complete silence.I'm thinking, holy shit, the whole song is done, end to endin my head. Never happened to me before in my life.”

The song talks of finding meaning in the day to day-and finding meaning is an overarching theme on this album.

O’Brien and Allan decided “that the onlyway to move forward was to infuse our work with as much meaning as possible,” Allan says, “so that whatever happened, we would feel full from it,and hopefully then people willfeel that too.”O’Brien agrees. “My goal was to write unwaveringly meaningful work that wasincredibly personal and didn’thold back.”The result isan albumstacked with songs about family, love, and finding one’s place. These songs are richly peopled and deeply personal-and at the same time, totally relatable. "It was intentional,” O’Brien said. “It wasn't like, let's write songs because we need to fill a record. Each songis its own story and its own living thing.”

“Clarity” is an anxious heart’s search for answers. “You’re Still Here” details a long, hard year and offers hope for the future. And “It’s Worth It (for Leo)” is a beautiful tribute to O’Brien’s father, who is unwell.O’Brien was thinking about what he mostwanted his father to know. “You've created a legacy of people that are honored and proud to come from you,” O’Brien says, “and that, looking back on your life, if you can think of one positive moment in a sea of experience, then it was worth being alive.”It’s a hard song to sing, O’Brien admits, and the album version is a single takethat had O’Brien-and producer Joshua Van Tassel-in tears.“It is not edited at all. You can hear that I’m sniffly in the last verse.It was a really profound moment. We had to keep it.”