CANADIAN folk band The East Pointers are heading for cardigan’s Theatr Mwldan on Friday October 13.

On the back of their new album What We Leave Behind which is released on September 29, the three-piece band make folk music as current as the latest pop blockbuster out of Latin America. They have legions of young fans across the world.

The East Pointers are fiddler/singer Tim Chaisson, Koady Chaisson on banjo and guitarist Jake Charron all from Canada’s East Coast. Their palpable authenticity makes their instrumental tunes infectious rhythm-driven hits and ensures their lyric-driven songs connect as though they were looking right in your eyes as they say the words.

What We Leave Behind, produced by songwriter/producer Gordie Sampson, is the follow-up to 2015’s internationally acclaimed, JUNO Award-winning debut Secret Victory. What We Leave Behind reflects on the traditions of Canadian Celtic music, where it comes from, and what it means to the people, but also strides in new directions that make it totally contemporary.

The trembling first single ‘82 Fires’ and the inspired ‘Two Weeks’, co-written with Sampson, were recorded at Nashville’s famed Sound Emporium last winter, where What We Leave Behind was cut.

‘82 Fires’ was born out of the band’s real experience of the disastrous Australian wildfires of 2016.

“While on tour in Penguin, Tasmania we spoke with an older gentleman, a lifelong resident, who said that there were 82 wildfires currently on the loose in Tasmania, the most in over half a century. “It hit home the severity of what we were all experiencing while we were there”, says Koady.

“It was a restless few days for us. Small human decisions about where to live or whether or not the show would go on didn’t matter, Mother Nature would always have the final say. Being in the middle of that brings an immediacy about it. You can feel powerless."

The arresting ‘Two Weeks’ meanwhile documents a passage sadly common in the bands’ home province of Prince Edward Island and played out the world over in economically challenged communities: the need to leave home and travel far away from friends and family to find work.

“When I played that song for my mom, she said ‘That’s going to hit home for a lot of people,’” says Koady. “Many families here are forced to split their time, with at least one member having to go out west, usually to Alberta, to make ends meet. It’s so hard. I did it, though luckily not for long, but there are people in my community going through it month after month, year after year.”

The flip side of What We Leave Behind, and indeed, of The East Pointers’ electrifying concerts, are the scorching instrumental tunes that yank the freewheeling, Celtic-goosed past into the present.

“Celtic-influenced tunes have always been at the core of what we do as a band,” says Jake. “There's something powerful about a style of music that has been passed on for generations around the world.”

What We Leave Behind carves a new path for The East Pointers, as they continue to blur the lines between traditional and popular music and continue to grow their devoted fan-base around the globe.