For the first time this millennium, Tom Hudson got to debut a new album this past weekend.
The Fort Smith Métis musician, whose career began in the 1960s, released his first album – Dance Among the Stars – to acclaim in the late 1990s.
His sophomore record, When We Are One, appeared on digital music services like Spotify last week. He played Fort Smith’s Fireweed Festival to celebrate its rollout.
Hudson had hoped to have the album finished late last year, but the final touches took him into 2026.
Asked what he was doing for the 29 years between albums, he replied with a smile: “Writing. Line by line.”
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“He’s been doing all kinds of things in the bush and building his home,” said Norm Glowach, a Yellowknife-based musician who has appeared on both Hudson albums.
“He lives here [in Fort Smith] and I live in Yellowknife, so he has to come to Yellowknife to record.”
Hudson said he had been “plugging away” for 12 years at When We Are One. He describes the sound of the 11-track album as “country style” with some political meaning to the tracks.
“There’s some political stuff in there. We don’t hit people over the head with the political stuff. It’s done tastefully,” he said.
“It gets people thinking about the lifestyle, and the environment, and peace. Peace – we need that.”
