Sandra Sutter channels magic in new single "Just Like the Moon"

In "Just Like the Moon," her latest release, award-winning Cree Métis singer-songwriter Sandra Sutter shares with us the most intimate of spaces, a space of doubt, surrender, and ultimately, transformation. Celebrated for marrying ancestral wisdom with modern sounds, Sutter creates a musical moment that is simultaneously time-worn and contemporary, ceremonial and deeply human.

A moody, melodic number, it's a sumptuous mishmash of folk and jazz with a hint of rock, perfect for conveying her genre-defying vision. But the song's emotional pulse stands out more than the texture. Penned the night before a recording session at MacEwan University's Bent River Records, "Just Like the Moon" was not on Sutter's agenda. It had, in fact, come up out of a maelstrom of self-doubt in a quiet dorm room, a place she does not speak of with regret but reverence. They discovered that what began as fear became creativity, shining a light on openness as a channel for the most genuine breakthroughs.

The metaphor of the moon, complete, receding, light, and shadow generating is a through line. In Sutter's care, the moon ceases to be a mere symbol and turns into a spiritual co-conspirator. She is concerned not with solitude as an experience of isolation but as a necessary stage for inductive rebirth. It is a mighty reminder that darkness does not conflict with light. It is part of its rhythm. Sutter's voice ebbs like a soft, persistent, and eerie tide. The delivery has a well-earned sweetness that only originates from a life dedicated to finding the truth. It's evidence of what leaning in can lead to when fear whispers that we should lean back.

As part of her upcoming third album, "Shadow Stories," "Just Like the Moon," is a glowing teaser of what's coming. With her feet grounded in indigenous tradition and an eye toward new artistic futures, Sandra Sutter is walking a road that links generations, genres, and galaxies of feeling. If we learn anything from the moon, every phase has its place. And Sandra Sutter, subdued brilliance, encourages us to remember them all.