Lawrence Maxwell

Lawrence Maxwell cut his teeth on beer caps, rough waters, and country music. His latest album, Ballad of Miles has been nominated for seven Music PEI Awards and has received airplay on: Sirius XM’s ‘Top of the Country,’ Country Hits Radio UK and CBC ‘Q’. With its neo-traditional production, and comparisons to both John Prine and Merle Haggard, Roots Music Canada has dubbed the record “the first great Canadian alt-country album of 2022.” His music video for “Back to Cape Breton” was a finalist in the Canadian Independent Music Video Awards and his song “Better You” was selected in the Top 100 for CBC/Toyota Searchlight in 2022. As an ECMA award nominee and two-time Music P.E.I. award winner, this Prince Edward Island singer-songwriter will tell it to you like it’s folk, and sing it to you like it’s country.

Maxwell hails from Prince Edward Island, Canada’s smallest province but one with a rich country music history based on every citizen’s relationship to the land and sea. In fact, before launching his musical career, Maxwell served in the Royal Canadian Navy upon graduating high school where, during downtime aboard his warship, he would compose thoughts that would lay the groundwork for his 2018 debut album Not Your Outlaw.

That record immediately put him on the Country Music map and earned him his first Music P.E.I. Award. Maxwell followed it up in 2020 with Almost Natural, which further displayed his skill at blending the traditional sounds of folk and bluegrass with modern themes and production values. It garnered Maxwell his first East Coast Music Award nomination and an AmericanaFest-UK showcase in 2021, while proving his music’s ability to unite fans of both the old and new. Now with his latest album, Ballad Of Miles, Maxwell is poised to expand his audience even further.

If Merle Haggard’s blue-collar poetry could be combined with George Jones’ voice and Sturgill Simpson’s boundary-shattering brashness, the result might just be Lawrence Maxwell’s Ballad Of Miles. As an album steeped in love, heartbreak and laughter, it is the perfect soundtrack for these times, when every day brings a new set of challenges and unexpected gifts.