The Canadian rocker’s new album moves through rock, folk and country while drawing on national landscapes, history and familiar names
Thunder Bay – NATIONAL News Service – Bryan Adams has released How’s It Goin’, a 12-track studio album built around Canadian places, people and stories. The record arrived November 6 through Adams’ own BAD Records.
Adams says the project began with a song written for the documentary Canada’s Wild Eastern Edge. Research for that piece opened the door to more songs about the country and nudged his music in a different direction.
The result draws on rock, folk and country rather than treating Canada as a single postcard. Song titles include Lake Ontario, When Canada Joined Newfoundland and The Ballad of Terry Fox. The latter honours the young athlete whose 1980 Marathon of Hope became one of the country’s most enduring public stories.
Another track, 51st State, takes a pointed and playful swing at the notion of Canada joining the United States. Lake Ontario, released ahead of the album, also leans into the border conversation by fixing its attention on a landmark shared by the two countries.
How’s It Goin’ is Adams’ 17th studio album and follows 2025’s Roll with the Punches. The national theme is not a survey from a newcomer, but a veteran songwriter looking back at the country that shaped his career.
The album is available digitally and in several physical editions. Those include CD, standard black vinyl, a red-and-white splatter LP and an A4 hardback book edition containing a CD, lyrics and images connected to the record’s subjects.
Adams has not positioned the album as a history lesson, and listeners should not expect an encyclopedia with a backbeat. The idea is more personal: a dozen snapshots of home, written by an artist who has spent much of his life carrying Canadian songs far beyond Canada.
Sources
Primary: Bryan Adams official release notice
