Uh, Merrill, what are you noticing about, like, the way that how culture is kind of being contested leading up to this referendum?

I mean, yeah, speaking as someone who operates in, like, a cultural and art space, um, and you know, as someone who's also very counterculture in the way that I present my work, like, we have, you know, kind of these incredible songwriters as we were talking about, like Corb and Noelene and Ian Tyson, and then you have this amazing offshoot of people who grew up listening to that kinda country s- like, but who have gone in a completely different direction, like Chad VanGaalen, who's from Calgary, where I'm from, and then, you know, I'm also leaning pretty left of center.

Um, yeah, it's just a really cool...

It's really cool to see how people are sort of bumping up against, um, the current popular movement, and, you know, like Henry's a dear friend of mine, as you were talking about, Henry Sur, and, uh, that's a comedian who's just exploded-

Yeah.

So i- i- for me, t- I ...

These are kind of always things that I've bumped up against cur- in Alberta, which, you know, has largely been a pretty conservative place.

Obviously, we've seen a move from, like, interest conservatism to whatever is happening now.

You were like sitting there going, you know, why do I keep on coming back to this music, to this touring life?

Yeah, why am I choosing a parking lot and these three dudes that are my best friends? But as the song kind of came together, when I wrote the song, I was like, this is a sad song.

But the more time I've spent with it and played it for people, there's quite a bit of like...

There's a bit of softness and grace in it for myself and for the life and for the people who do it.

And I was watching construction workers in Edmonton because I was in Edmonton at the time.

A lot of construction there.

And I was relating our jobs because I was like, these people are working super hard.

Would you mind saying who you are and introducing the song?

And, I mean, tell me a little bit about where the song comes from and, and the moment that the song came out of.

Yeah.

I, I kinda wrote this one, uh, in between seasons of putting out records.

I was extremely lost in my career, and I had thought long and hard about giving up, to be honest with you.

I was going through, uh, quite a bit of, of turmoil in my own life, and this song kind of fell out on the apartment I no longer live in.

Um, and to kinda be playing it in spaces like this after taking it on that journey is pretty nuts.

[cheers] What is this, not this hall, but, like, what does this place, this province, mean to you?

Oh, gosh.