Séan McCann (of Great Big Sea) and Jeremy Fisher met in the lounge of a dusty tour bus behind an arena in Sudbury. Within minutes, they had guitars in hand and began co-writing their first song together. Fifteen years after their last co-headline tour, they are back on the road with United in Song, a revue of their best and most beloved music that they are also billing as a “deliberate act of joyful resistance”. This fall tour brings them to several venues in the Ottawa Valley — with stops in Chaffey’s Locks, Arnprior, Perth, Kemptville, Brockville and Almonte — so theHumm caught up with them both to find out more.

theHumm: What musical sparks ignited on that bus in Sudbury, and does the song you started together still exist?

Jeremy Fisher: The song does exist and we will be playing it on this tour! It’s a folky waltz called Protest Song, and I’m so grateful Séan had the demo in his archives. As I remember it, we had a few hours to kill in the afternoon and I was invited onto the Great Big Sea bus to hang out in the back lounge. We were talking about music we liked, getting to know each other and just playing songs back and forth. The start of the lyric came from one of us saying, “Just what the world needs, another protest song…” The thing kinda wrote itself in about 20 minutes and we made a quick demo right there on the bus. Then Séan and I went for a run.

How does co-headlining a tour like this change the dynamics of performance and interaction — both for you and for the audience?

Séan McCann: Good question. For the past 15 years I’ve really enjoyed being all alone up there on stage facing off against a room full of strangers and trying to make a lasting positive impact on the lives I leave behind when the show is over. It’s an extreme balancing act. I’m the tightrope walker and my songs are the wire and I really enjoy the genuine excitement and tension that brings to a show. Jeremy Fisher is fearless and I’m really looking forward to walking that wire with him. These shows will be very special for us and the audience.

You both have extensive musical backgrounds and are involved with multiple projects — what can audiences expect from this particular show?

Jeremy: We’ll be up there on stage at the same time, backing each other up on every song. As we’ve rehearsed, it’s really grown into something quite different from each of our solo shows. We’re playing multiple instruments such as 6- and 12-string guitars, mandolin, tin whistle and harmonica. It’s a foot-stomping, sing-a-long, feel-good set, with pretty much every song you’d want to hear from our catalogues.

What factors have you experienced in the past few years that have led to this current act of joyful resistance?

Séan: Between Covid and the rapid decline of our relationship with America, I feel Canadians have been through a lot since 2020. The rise of division politics aided by deliberately addictive billionaire-owned digital platforms is tearing our society apart and it’s hard to know how to fight back against the growing feeling of despair. I believe that putting down our devices for a few hours and singing together in a room full of strangers and friends is a meaningful form of peaceful resistance against the monopolists who would have us all isolated and enslaved. The billionaires will not like this one bit.

It sounds like this show is going to be a balm for the troubled soul. Why is it so important to bring real human and creative connection to audiences these days?

Séan: Social media promised to connect us, but it only tore us apart. Now Artificial Intelligence is promising to solve all of our problems but I believe it, too, will do more harm than good to the many and benefit only a very wealthy few. Technology can be very useful to humanity but it can never be human. We are made of more than just flesh and bone. We are made of music and we are made of love!

Catch Jeremy and Séan, United in Song, at Chaffey’s Lock on September 26, in Arnprior on October 3, in Perth on October 10, in Brockville on October 17, in Kemptville on October 24, and in Almonte on November 7. Find more details at seanmccannsings.com and jeremyfishermusic.com.