Rankin MacInnis & The Broken Reeds, share their latest single Punches and the Tide.
Today, indie folk, pop and Celtic Halifax / Cape Breton staples, Rankin MacInnis & The Broken Reeds, share their latest single Punches and the Tide. It’s the latest single from their upcoming album, The Wake (due out January 15, 2027). The track serves as a reminder that there is beauty in the fight and in surviving and the song echoes those sentiments with the band’s signature lyrical imagery and storytelling, as well as harmonizing and captivating group vocals, accordion, mandolin, fiddle, a foot stomping beat and rip-roaring electric guitar bits. Listen here and watch the music video here.
“Though I am not a fighter or fisherman, I’ve been a musician for a long time and also, I’ve had to be a bartender or a bus driver or a postal clerk. My father was a teacher and a tradesman. Every one of my bandmates is the best in their class and has two jobs,” shares Rankin. “We do what we have to do to survive, but we do also have beautiful memories and beautiful days – in the past and in the future – and that’s why we take those Punches. The Tide just shows where on the map we have been taking them.
After moving back to Cape Breton during COVID, Rankin found himself living in the woods and feeling truly isolated. With little happening around him, he started writing about what was right in front of him. One night at 2:00 A.M., sitting by the window and staring into the darkness, the opening lines came to him: “Children lay sleeping as the stars light up the sky, the moon is on the rise and so am I.” From there, the song became an exercise in looking inward. When he couldn’t quite get it across the finish line on his own, a Zoom call with friends Luke Levy, Shane Martin, Seamus Erskine and Tommy Green Jr. helped bring it all together. “It’s the most friends I’ve ever had help write a song, and I needed every one of them,” explains Rankin.
Punches and the Tide also marked a return for Rankin to his musical roots. Early in his career, he was focused on making music that was popular, high-energy and built for the dance floor. But returning to Cape Breton brought folk music back into his life, along with memories of the sounds he grew up listening to and the places where he discovered them. The big “GOOOOO”s at the end of the song recall The Rankin Family’s The Orangedale Whistle, while the fiddle and accordion riff draw inspiration from Up, the first Great Big Sea tape he owned. In many ways, Punches and the Tide became the starting point for the album, as the music he grew up with came rushing back and as Rankin puts it, re-entered his blood.
“We can argue that the world was better, but we can’t deny that the main reason things seemed better as a kid was that we lived life vibrantly and appreciated just being. The world had wonder and we lived for it. This song is a reminder to strive to live with that outlook.”
And that’s exactly what Rankin did in the accompanying music video.
Filmed during a September sailing trip to Sable Island with his friend, Captain Andrew Bruce, the music video captures Rankin’s journey across the Atlantic Ocean and offers a visual companion to the song’s nostalgic East Coast spirit. Part zone-out banger, part memory-country shuffle, the track is full of folklike flashbacks that feel right at home against the island’s wild landscape. The trip also gave Rankin his first real opportunity to explore his long-standing interest in photography and videography, using a Fuji X-T3 camera with vintage Leica glass he purchased during COVID, around the same time he was writing the song. Following the journey from the Atlantic crossing to arrival on the island, the video features dolphins, Sable Island’s grey seals (home to the world’s largest grey seal breeding colony) and, of course, its iconic wild horses. Watch here.
Adds Rankin: “What better place to roll with the Punches and the Tide than Sable Island – the Graveyard of the Atlantic?”
Punches and the Tide follows The Wake’s previous singles Still Got A Friend and Weightless, which received coverage in Exclaim!’s The Eh! List Playlist, feature radio play on SXM’s North Americana, and more. Previously released Bring It Home (a summery homespun roots tune and debut single from the group) received praise and coverage from Front-View Magazine, IMPRINT and the The Indy Review, among others. It was also widely played among CBC Radio’s Cape Breton Information, Mainstreet NS, and Weekend Mornings, while also landing on CBC Tom Power’s Deep Roots Playlist and Exclaim!’s The Eh! List Playlist.
To say it’s been a remarkable journey for Rankin would be an understatement: from performing in front of two Queens, Elizabeth II and Dolly Parton, to sharing the stage with The White Stripes—as seen in Under Great White Northern Lights—to the Vancouver Olympics, Dollywood and even Scotland to place third place at the World Pipe Band Championships with the Gaelic College Pipe Band, it’s truly been an adventure.
Having already been crowned Music Nova Scotia’s Entertainer of the Year, Rankin and his 10-piece band come with an understandably big sound. Together, the band has built two award-winning events: the music festival Blueberry Jam and the first-of-its-kind concert series Rankin’s Winter Warmers at Halifax’s Marquee Ballroom.
Rankin MacInnis & The Broken Reeds just announced the 10th season of The Winter Warmers. The event has become a Halifax winter tradition, known for its energetic performances, community spirit, and guest performances. The Winter Warmers will take place over 13 weeks at Halifax's historic Marquee Ballroom. This year, they are also hosting events in Wolfville and Pictou County. The festivities kick off December 19 with tickets and more information on the Warmers available here (full show listing below).
TOUR DATES:
November 14 - The Great Big Dig - Halifax, NS
WINTER WARMER DATES:
- 12/19/2026 - Rankin's Winter Warmers, The Marquee Ballroom, Halifax
- 12/20/2026 - Rankin's Winter Warmers, Devour! Studios, Wolfville
- 01/02/2027 - Rankin's Winter Warmers, The Marquee Ballroom, Halifax
- 01/09/2027 - Rankin's Winter Warmers, The Marquee Ballroom, Halifax
- 01/16/2027 - Rankin's Winter Warmers, The Marquee Ballroom, Halifax
- 01/23/2027 - Rankin's Winter Warmers, The Marquee Ballroom, Halifax
- 01/24/2027 - Rankin's Winter Warmers, deCoste Performing Arts Centre, Pictou
- 01/30/2027 - Rankin's Winter Warmers, The Marquee Ballroom, Halifax
- 02/06/2027 - Rankin's Winter Warmers, The Marquee Ballroom, Halifax
- 02/13/2027 - Rankin's Winter Warmers, The Marquee Ballroom, Halifax
- 02/14/2027 - Rankin's Winter Warmers, Devour! Studios, Wolfville
- 02/20/2027 - Rankin's Winter Warmers, The Marquee Ballroom, Halifax
- 02/27/2027 - Rankin's Winter Warmers, The Marquee Ballroom, Halifax
- 03/06/2027 - Rankin's Winter Warmers, The Marquee Ballroom, Halifax
- 03/13/2027 - Rankin's Winter Warmers, The Marquee Ballroom, Halifax
- 03/20/2027 - Rankin's Winter Warmers, The Marquee Ballroom, Halifax
THE WAKE TRACK LISTING:
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