Bill and Joel Plaskett join forces on new album Solidarity

While Joel Plaskett has made a name for himself as one of Canada's great songwriters, his dad Bill is an accomplished musician in his own right. 

Growing up, Joel heard his dad playing tunes at home, took that inspiration and ran with it. "In a child's desire for attention from his father, he'd come up and put his hands on my strings," Bill recalls, of Joel's interest in his guitar playing. "So I made him a cutout guitar with a string that went around his neck so while I played, he could play too." 

In all those years, Joel has never collaborated with his dad — until now. They've come together on a new album called, fittingly enough, Solidarity (out Feb. 17).

Joel assures that this isn't solely his project and that he and Bill actually collaborated on the entire record. "I was ostensibly producing it and pushing it forward," Joel clarifies. "It was very collaborative, I wasn't driving it."

Head over to CBC Music now and watch their full First Play Live session. For a full list of tour dates, head to Joel Plaskett's website.

— Produced by Mitch Pollock