Editor's Note: Cat Clyde is No Depression's Spotlight Artist for March 2026. Learn more about the Canadian singer-songwriter and her new album Mud Blood Bone, due out March 13 via Concord, in this feature. Keep an eye out for more from Clyde all month long.
Cat Clyde’s musical ambitions trace back as far as she remembers. Growing up in Perth County, Ontario, she was surrounded by extended family members who played fiddle and guitar. At first, she wanted to be an opera singer, inspired by the early-aughts film editions of classic theater productions like Moulin Rouge and Phantom of the Opera. Later, she found the blues on YouTube, where Lead Belly’s version of “Where Did You Sleep Last Night” served as a gateway to deeper, older music.
“That changed my whole world. Prior to that, I didn’t know there was recorded music that was that old. It felt so familiar – I felt like I had found a friend,” she says. “That led me to explore other blues artists like Robert Johnson, and that got me into rhythm and blues like Etta James and Ray Charles, and that led me to folk music – Woody Guthrie and all those guys – and it just kept unfolding. It was this great, beautiful, never-ending discovery.”
In Perth County, Clyde also got an early taste of what it meant to be a performer. “I had a friend whose parents owned a music store, and they got the kids in the neighborhood together to create a variety band where each person would perform cover songs. We’d play country fairs, and that was my first experience playing live. I was terrified, but there was something about it I loved. It felt really good to push myself through the fear.”
So began Cat Clyde’s habit of embracing discomfort instead of shrinking from it, a theme that carries through her new album, Mud Blood Bone, out today via Concord. Eloquent and blunt at once, Mud Blood Bone is a candid self-portrait of an artist sifting through the ashes of a bitter breakup, staring down self-doubt, and emerging with renewed purpose.
Stil, it’s a delicate balance of revealing too much in a song, while still conveying a full story. “Sometimes I worry about that, but I only think about it when it’s far too late,” she says. “Being honest with myself is really important and I would never want to change something to feel more comfortable. The truth can feel uncomfortable sometimes and that’s okay.”
