The New LoFi

Billy Raffoul’s new album is a rock ‘n’ roll album that is meant to be played loud

Under a haze of late-summer light, you can faintly hear an acoustic tremor turning electric — the quiet becoming a roar. Here’s the sound of a songwriter pouring everything into their music. Here’s the sound of Billy Raffoul’s latest album: When I Cross The River.

The new album is part of a two-part release that Raffoul launched this summer that showcases the two sides of himself. The eponymous first album was released in July and was an intimate acoustic story of connection. This month Raffoul releases the second full length album, When I Cross The River, which is more of a rock-tinged album that is meant to be played loud.

“‘When I Cross the River’ is a homecoming in many ways,” explains Raffoul when talking about the title track on the album. “I left my hometown of Leamington, Ontario, at 19 for Nashville, Tennessee. I went down there intending to make a rock and roll record. However, the music I would release for the next 10 years would be predominantly acoustic recordings. It took over a decade, but I’ve finally made that rock record. The river I’m referencing in the track is the Detroit River; I cross it every time I came home to Leamington.”

Rock and roll this album very much is. In fact, I wouldn’t hold it against you if you drew a connection between Raffoul and The Boss. With Raffoul’s raspy and confident vocal delivery, sometimes I feel as if I’m listening to the Canadian Bruce Springsteen.

In the first half of the album, you have a song like “Get Along” which is a heartwarming love song that was inspired by the first time he met his girlfriend. Then you are hit with a track like “Canadian,” which is rock to the bone. The song is about the experience of many immigrants who left their homes and everything they knew to build a life in a new country. That rolls right into a song like “Young” which is a sing along anthem that is hard not to stomp your feet to.

It’s not all big stadium rock though. Songs like “Born to Love” and the album finisher, “Where the Skies are Blue,” whistle along to a smoothly delivered acoustic strum. “Where the Skies are Blue,” was written while Billy was on tour in the U.S. in 2021. Like everyone else, he was trying to figure out how to navigate the post-COVID world. “We got a flat tire on I-70 heading east through Kansas just west of Salina,” says Raffoul when talking about how the song came together. “I wrote the song on the side highway after I changed the flat. It’s a song about missing home and missing my band. It shares the same concept as first track on the album and it felt like an appropriate bookend.”

Billy Raffoul and When I Cross The River are now available on all streaming and digital platforms via Nettwerk Music Group.