The sweeping folk anthems of Willem James Cowan have been capturing ears across Eastern Canada since 2018. Across three releases and various singles, he has explored the uncharted corners of his soul and his sound, alone with a guitar or backed by a collective of musicians known as The Friends of the Cove. On the titular track of his 2022 full-length album Mourning in the Morningtime, Cowan sings that he is “out of thoughts and out of rhymes.” It’s just one example of the stark vulnerability that characterizes his musical identity, even if it couldn’t be further from the truth.