With a somber tone and an earnest perspective about the aftermath of loss, Canadian country troubadour Matt Patershuk’s track,“Back Against The Wall,” from his upcoming record I Was So Fond Of You gives voice to sentimentality and rural life in modern Alberta.

Patershuk’s positioning through his music is that of an outsider. Though an active participant in the ennui-inducing lifestyle set before him, his scope of a horizon before him is great and his colloquial jawings are knowingly tongue-in-cheek and prescient.

“Each place where I’ve lived has worked its way into who I am,” said Patershuk. “I think that kind of perspective, where there is knowledge, but not familiarity, is gold for songwriting.”

“Back Against The Wall” plays like a lamentation of a day lost to fruitless work, with dobro and fiddle underscoring the thankless grind of the working class folk. Patershuk describes the track as a lament of a family who has fallen on hard times and the father’s resolve to do something about it. Patershuk’s languorous vocals extend themselves over an exhausted bass and drums, steeping the singer-songwriter in the unfolding monotony before him. Patershuk inhabits a blue collar consciousness of Springsteen while modeling a rambling weariness akin to Guthrie.

Patershuk’s I Was So Fond Of You debuts March 11 on Black Hen Music. Patershuk is currently touring Canadian dates in support of the album. More information can be found at his site.