Forever Nuts

Ten minute tea with Afternoon Tea. Spend ten minutes with Afternoon Tea. In the time it takes to boil one kettle, and let one cup of tea steep, we will have your daily art + music fix covered. Take your afternoon tea break with our Afternoon Tea curators. 

Today’s tea + soundtrack + visuals are curated by Duke & Goldie (Blue Sky Miners). As longtime members of Blue Sky Miners, the musical duo of Eric “The Duke” Duquette and Jena “Goldie” Gogo had released two albums, toured North America, and enjoyed national radio play. Still there seemed to be uncharted musical waters on the horizon, so Duke & Goldie escaped from Toronto and set out for a small island in the Pacific Northwest in May of 2020. 

The rag tag pirate-like community of (aptly named) Protection Island turned out to be the perfect coastal environment for the pair’s musical evolution to take place. Fire lit jams, a newfound connection to nature and deep reflection on their roles as settlers in this land gave spark to the self-titled EP that the now Vancouver-based twosome are proud to present. 

Recorded with producer and pedal steel ace Aaron Goldstein (Julianna Riolino, Daniel Romano, Kathleen Edwards) with rhythm pros Anna Ruddick and Dani Nash, Duke & Goldie charts out landscapes and stories from thrilling rocky mountain highs, to mysterious remote deserts and walks the line barefoot between warm-folk storytelling and mystical country twang. All while asking deeper questions about the duo’s place in the land they love so much.

Singles “Courage,” “Rocky Mountain Feeling” and focus track “See You There” navigate the ups and downs of life on the journey to self-discovery. “See You There” was written in contribution to a fundraiser for a women’s shelter which led Goldie to ruminate about a spectrum of tough experiences—inequities, systemic failures, abuse—in search of the beauty in human connection. “We wanted to tell anyone experiencing adversity that they are not only seen and worthy of love where they are, but that they deserve so much more,” she states.

The Art (5years/lifeonmars by Joël Culligan) 

This image is of Cape Tormentine, a small costal village that was once the only connection to Prince Edward Island via ferry from New Brunswick. Once the Confederation Bridge (the world’s longest over ice covered water) was built, the town suffered and tourism mostly came to a halt as travellers now bypassed the community in favour of the faster bridge. The locals knew the day that the construction of the bridge was announced, it would be the end of an era. This image shows the town’s water tower which stands as a symbol of the impermanence of landscapes and the people who inhabit them. This landscape no longer exists. 

The Music (Make and Break Harbor by Stan Rogers)

Stan is a legendary Canadian singer-songwriter and a huge influence on us. Much like the art, this song also depicts the impermanence of lifestyles on the eastern coast of Canada. In this case, Stan sings about the old ways of fishing that sustained the blue collar communities of Eastern Canada for generations. These old ways of small sustainable fishing operations were being eschewed in favour of industrial-scale practices like long-line fishing that are incredibly harmful, not only for the livelihoods of the locals who depended on the fishing industry, but for the environment and marine ecosystem as well. 

The Tea (Forever Nuts) 

This gem from David’s Tea is one of our favourites. Its our go-to tea for relaxation and we always find it helps our thoughts and feelings steep in a healthy way. This delicious comforting brew is perfect to sip on while pondering the impermanence of the old ways and landscapes that have come and gone. Also let’s face it, sometimes the world can be a little… nuts.