Winnipeg, MB · folk · country

William Prince

1 upcoming festival

Peguis First Nation songwriter with a baritone that sits somewhere between Johnny Cash and a hymn; two Juno awards and a John Prine Songwriter Fellowship for plainspoken, slow-burning country-folk.

William Prince was born in Selkirk, Manitoba, in 1986, a direct descendant of Chief Peguis, and moved as a boy to Peguis First Nation before later settling in Winnipeg. His father Edward was a pastor and musician who recorded his own albums and took his son along to gigs across northern Manitoba.

That upbringing shows in Prince's writing: steady tempos, plain language, songs that turn on a single admission rather than a chorus hook. He sings in a low baritone and keeps the accompaniment close to acoustic guitar and voice, built for a small room rather than an arena.

His debut album, Earthly Days, came out in 2015, and its single "Breathless" reached the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart. Reliever followed in 2020, then Gospel First Nation the same year, mixing new originals with songs his father wrote and older traditional gospel numbers. Stand in the Joy arrived in 2023 on Six Shooter Records, with a further album, Further from the Country, to follow.

Prince has also played alongside Vince Fontaine and Don Amero in the band Indian City, performed at a Buffy Sainte-Marie tribute concert with Marie-Mai and surviving members of the Tragically Hip, and played the Grand Ole Opry in 2023. He has won two Juno awards for Contemporary Roots Album of the Year, received a John Prine Songwriter Fellowship, and was awarded an honorary doctorate from Nipissing University in 2025.

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