Still Right Beside You: Sophie B. Hawkins To Celebrate 30 Year "Whaler" Milestone in Saskatoon (Friday, July 11th)

by Scott Roos

Photo by Marc Andrews

This Friday, July 11th, as part of the SaskTel Saskatchewan Jazz Festival, singer-songwriter Sophie B. Hawkins makes her long-awaited return to Canada - specifically Saskatoon - for the first time in several years. The performance celebrates the 30th anniversary of her iconic album Whaler and coincides with the upcoming October 25th release of Whaler – Re‑Emerging, a newly recorded take on the album’s beloved tracks.

“It does sound right,” Hawkins told NSMZ when asked if it had been a while since she last played north of the border. “I mean, I don’t know when the last time is that I performed in Canada.”

So why now?

“Why Canada Now? ….. it's an opportunity. If it had arisen before as an opportunity, I would have been there, but it's rough out there. Getting music out is, I don't know if people still say, but they used to say, ‘oh, but it's so easy. You just put it on the internet.’ I mean, that couldn't be further from the truth. It's harder than ever really toto get paid, to get tours. It's really a challenge.” 

“It’s…. the 30-year anniversary (of Whaler) and being able to have a release (that has enabled me to do this),” she said. “A good friend of mine suggested I make Whaler Re-emerging… she said, ‘record Whaler Re-emerging in two days, just go in and do it, but  rehearse it (first) on the road in front of an audience.’ And that's what she said to do when I did it. And she was right. She said, ‘don't spend a lot of money on it. Don't even, you know, spend the time.’ She said, ‘just go and do it in front of people and then run into the studio and do it.’ And itt was a great experience and a very wise idea.”

 What came out of that was a project that feels more like a return to source than a reinvention. 

“I did avoid the word re-imagined because it didn't fit right, because I didn't sit there and contemplate, how would I (redo) Whaler? I didn't have that thought. All I really thought was that I fucking love these songs. I can't wait to get in and start playing them again. I didn't think of it as doing this reconstruction. I thought of it as wanting to go back to the place where I wrote those songs,” Hawkins explained, “You know, “As I Lay Me Down”, I wrote on the guitar leaning against a bed post after waiting tables all night on 6th Avenue and Prince Street. I want to go back to that moment when (the song) came out (of me).... I was thinking about the songwriter of  “True Romance”. I wanted to go back to when I sat at the piano and was playing those changes, and finally the words started to flow out. And I remember who I wrote that about. I remember when I wrote that song. I remember why I wrote it. I remember being in my Christopher Street apartment, looking at the Hudson River, the lights shining at night, shining on the world. I wanted to go back to that Sophie before I even made Whaler,” Hawkins explained.

On Re-Emerging, then, she’s approached these songs as she first did: from a place of rhythm, honesty, and emotional depth. This spirit - organic, spiritual, and improvisational - also shapes how she will perform them live in Saskatoon this Friday, July 11th. Touring as a trio, Hawkins will be joined onstage by Vancouverite Joe Cruz on keys and guitar and Satnam Ramgotra, a Saskatoon-born drummer she describes as “fantastic… the one with the beautiful beard.”

The arrangements are more stripped-down than the original album’s glossy, mid-’90s production, but Hawkins insists they’re no less rich. The lush nature of the songs will still be evident. “ I think people might hear that the lushness (of the songs on Whaler) is in the chords (as opposed to the arrangements specifically that are evident on the original album), because when I write, I'm always looking for lushness in my harmonic structure,” Hawkins says,  “That's the way I play piano. I play it sort of big, like big stretches and lots of sustained pedal. I want to be enveloped by the music. And so lush, I would say, is my element…. don't be disappointed. It is still lush, because the very chord changes are lush. And the lyrics are lush. And the melodies are very lush. So I would say the lushness is there. It's a different lush. It's not programmed drums and lots of synthesizers. But so this is a great thing for people to experience and see what they think.”

Instrumentally, she still builds many songs from the ground up - starting with percussion. “On stage, I play the djembe on many songs and have a beautiful drum break,” she told me. “Those loops (on the original Whaler) in ‘As I Lay Me Down’…. They were from my home demo. All the synthesizers and loops on those first two albums are from my bedroom. The frying pans on ‘Did We Not Choose’—that’s from my kitchen.”

“Some people have pointed out that the rhythm is in my singing too,” she said. “It’s very rhythm-oriented, even though it’s melodic.”

Even with all the sonic detail and percussive instinct, Hawkins is a songwriter through and through—and it all begins and ends with the hook.

“The hooks come when they come in the process and I am hoping for that… I am a songwriter, so I'm hanging the song on a hook. And if the hook's not there, I can't really release the song. So in a way, that's the hard part,” she said.  “I am a hook person. I look for the hooks in life because I'm drowning if I don't. That's why we are all into the hooks, right? We have to sing along. We have to hang onto something.”

That precision and instinct has shaped Whaler’s fan-favorite tracks like “Swing from Limb to Limb,” “Only Love (The Ballad of Sleeping Beauty),” and, of course, the global hits “Right Beside You” and “As I Lay Me Down” all of which may appear in her Saskatoon set. While the arrangements might be leaner this time around, the emotional intensity is anything but dialed down.

Hawkins won’t be the only high-caliber talent gracing the Victoria Park stage Friday night. She’ll be joined by Paula Cole, another iconic voice of ’90s alt-pop, whose piano-forward songwriting and powerful vocals Hawkins deeply admires.

“Paula is so caring and so generous and such a great musician, songwriter and singer. It really is inspiring to be with her on the bill,” Hawkins said. “She really keeps the bar totally high.”

Also on the bill is Canadian singer-songwriter Chantal Kreviazuk, known for her soaring vocals, introspective lyrics, and legacy as one of this country’s most respected musical exports. Regina's Marissa Burwell opens the show with her gentle, heartfelt indie folk—a rising Prairie star who adds a distinctly local flavor to the evening’s lineup.

With this combination of powerhouse performers and heartfelt originals, the evening of Friday, July 11th night at the SaskTel Saskatchewan Jazz Festival promises to be one of the summer’s standout events.

If you are unable to attend the Saskatoon show, fret not as Hawkins, alongside Cole will also be touring together this fall:

Canada Tour Dates 2025 

October 16 - North Battleford, Saskatchewan @ Dekker Centre for the Performing Arts

October 17 - Camrose, Alberta @ Jeanne & Peter Lougheed Performing Arts Centre

October 18 - Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta @ Dow Centennial Centre - Shell Theatre

October 19 - Prince Albert, Saskatchewan @ E.A. Rawlinson Centre for The Arts

October 21 - Brandon, Manitoba @ Western Manitoba Centennial Auditorium

October 22 - Winnipeg, Manitoba @ Club Regent Event Centre

October 25 - St. Albert, Alberta @ Arden Theatre

October 26 - Red Deer, Alberta @ Red Deer Memorial Centre

October 27 - Calgary, Alberta @ Bella Concert Theatre

October 29 - Vancouver, British Columbia @ Vancouver Playhouse

October 30 - Victoria, British Columbia @ McPherson Playhouse