The Ones Ahead

As he entered his seventies, the classically-trained Canada-based singer/composer Glenn-Copeland was lapsing into dignified retirement. Then he made public his status as transgender and the announcement generated renewed interest in his work and led to the 2017 reissue of his classic 1986 new age album Keyboard Fantasies. A new audience, cult status and a documentary film followed and he began performing again – now we have his first collection of new music in nearly two decades. The Ones Ahead touches only tangentially on Songlines' core musical interests, but the results are exquisite in the way that the work of global beat dabblers such as Paul Simon and David Byrne often can be. The surging opener ‘Africa Calling’ with its tribal chants honours Copeland's own West African heritage. There are Celtic echoes (‘Prince Caspian's Dream’), poignant piano ballads (‘Love Takes All’), global rapture (‘People of the Loon’) and gorgeous jazz moods (‘Lakeland Angel’ and the title track). All are imbued with a spiritual ‘new age’ message as he calls on our ancestral guides to lead us from an old and damaged world to a new one waiting to be born. Some might find it mannered, pretentious even. But it's done with such artistry and sober humility that Copeland carries it off with a heart-warming dignity.