Americana artist Sarah Jane Scouten shares live video of new track “Wilder When I Was With You” out now

For immediate release:
July 6, 2023

Today, Canadian folk/country artist Sarah Jane Scouten shares a brand new, live video of her nostalgia-soaked, gentle “Wilder When I Was With You” in collaboration with Circa 16 Sound Recording filmed in Dumfries, Scotland. Under a smoky haze and glowing, hanging lights, Scouten delivers a special live performance of her latest track, available to watch here. This July, Scouten will perform live around The Yukon and Vancouver, BC with tickets on sale now via sarahjanescouten.com/tour.

On the special location and her collaborators, Scouten says of this new video, “We filmed this video upstairs at The Stove on Dumfries High Street. We didn’t know what to expect but they had done a full set with a smoke machine!” Over the last few years, Scouten relocated to Scotland to study herbal medicine and has been embraced by the local music scene. Scouten continues, “I feel lucky the music scene in this part of Scotland has adopted me as their own. On the left is Robbie Caswell-Jones, a really talented guitarist from North Wales and good friend. Together, we do the Gillian Welch-Dave Rawlings thing around the U.K. and it’s a blast.”

Watch “Wilder When I Was With You” Live From Scotland

The original version of the sweet, wistful track and visualizer recalls a simpler time of growing up, young love and carefree summers. It captures the joy and freedom of growing up and getting in trouble. Co-written with Samantha Parton of The BeGood Tanyas, who also grew up on the West Coast of Canada, the track took shape after a short voice memo Parton sent Scouten of the hook. “She sent me a little voice memo with the warbling hook, ‘Whoa, I was wilder when I was with you’ and I just filled in the rest,” recalls Scouten.

The track paints a picture of Scouten’s own laid-back summer nights, driving in old cars and sitting in rowboats under the stars. Scouten continues, “Where I grew up, we used to ride around in rattly old cars during the summer on Bowen Island, in the back of pick up trucks or Jeeps with no doors. We used to take rowboats off the beach at night just to watch the phosphorescence in the August sea waters trail behind the boat and around the oars. The song contains a series of memories tied together by two made up young characters falling in love.”

Sarah Jane Scouten has three full-length albums under her belt, with the first arriving in 2014 titled The Cape. After a string of singles, her sophomore effort came in 2017 with When The Bloom Falls From The Rose, and in 2019, solidified her place in the folk/country scene with the intimate portrait of her life, Confessions. Tastemakers have taken notice of Scouten’s unique ability to captivate listeners and transcend genres. The Boot called 2017’s “Bang, Bang,” “A rollicking, uptempo track with a retro feel and just the right amount of twang and blues influence.” Exclaim! praised the musician’s remarkable songwriting adding, “Scouten’s songs offer honest, poignant and at times humorous lyrics that reveal the artist’s personal insight and knack for storytelling.”

Scouten has been nominated for 4 Canadian Folk Music Awards, a Western Canadian Music Award and an International Folk Music Award. She has performed at Vancouver Folk Music Festival, MerleFest, Calgary Folk Music Festival, Salmon Arm Roots and Blues, Dranouter Festival, Maverick Americana Music Festival and more. She has opened for Corb Lund, William Prince, Ron Sexsmith, The Sadies and shared the stage with Martha Wainwright, The Strumbellas, Allison Russell, Martin Carthy, Mandolin Orange (Watchhouse) and more. As CBC’s Tom Power noted, “Stan Rogers was able to do it, Ron Hynes was able to do it, Kate McGarrigle was able to do it – and Sarah Jane Scouten is able to do it.”

Now in 2023, Scouten is ready to invite listeners back into her ever-growing carefully crafted, warm sonic universe. Filled with intimate portraits of the human experience, Scouten offers a place of refuge, reflection and peace using soothing vocals and the serene strum of an acoustic guitar.
The intimate live video of Sarah Jane Scouten’s latest track “Wilder When I Was With You” is available to watch now here. See Sarah Jane Scouten live this summer across Canada with tickets on sale now here. Connect with Sarah Jane Scouten on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube and stay tuned for much more from the folk/country musician.

Sarah Jane Scouten Bio

In March 2020, Canadian folk & country artist Sarah Jane Scouten was living in rural Scotland. With tours cancelled, days stretched endlessly, punctuated only by the steady unfolding of Scottish springtime, leaf by leaf, petal by petal. Growing up on the West Coast of Canada, to her the flora of Dumfries and Galloway was a pageant of scent and colour, altogether new but still strangely familiar.

This is where Sarah Jane was initiated into herbal medicine – hawthorn, valerian, yarrow. The plants’ subtle power drew her onto an unexpected path. In May 2020 she applied to a professional programme in herbal medicine in the UK, qualifying in June 2023. Training in an entirely different field gave her perspective and space from a career in music which demands everything. It renewed Sarah Jane’s love of live performance, which had been diminished by life on the road. Studying herbs, and just as importantly people, gave her music a deeper dimension and she began to write again. Now for the first time this decade, she is releasing new music.

Sarah Jane Scouten has been nominated for 4 Canadian Folk Music Awards, a Western Canadian Music Award and an International Folk Music Award. She has performed at Vancouver Folk Music Festival, MerleFest, Calgary Folk Music Festival, Salmon Arm Roots and Blues, Dranouter Festival, Maverick Americana Music Festival and more. She has opened for Corb Lund, William Prince, Ron Sexsmith, The Sadies and shared the stage with Martha Wainwright, The Strumbellas, Allison Russell, Martin Carthy, Mandolin Orange (Watchhouse) and more. According to CBC q’s Tom Power, Stan Rogers was able to do it, Ron Hynes was able to do it, Kate McGarrigle was able to do it – and Sarah Jane Scouten is able to do it.