Logan Staats releases Peacemaker, recorded in Ohsweken
Cover art for Logan Staats’s Peacemaker, released Oct. 2 through Ishkōdé Records.
Photo credit: Ishkōdé Records / album artwork
Mohawk singer-songwriter Logan Staats released Peacemaker on Oct. 2 through Ishkōdé Records, with the 10-track album recorded and mixed at Jukasa Media Group in Ohsweken, Ont., and mastered in Toronto. The record includes “Sacred Love,” featuring Allison Russell, as well as “Empty Hands,” “Medicine Wheel,” “Rainwater And Whiskey” and the closing “I’ll Be Here In The Morning.”
Peacemaker takes its title from the story of the Peacemaker, which Staats discusses directly in notes accompanying the album. He describes it as “one of the first traditional Mohawk stories that was shared with me,” and connects the teaching to a message of peace, the burying of weapons beneath a tree and the uniting of the Six Nations. The Haudenosaunee Confederacy’s own account describes the Peacemaker teaching the laws of peace, planting the Great Tree of Peace at Onondaga and asking that weapons be buried beneath it.
Staats also places the album within his own ongoing work around healing and reconnection. In the release notes, he describes each record as a chapter in that process and says he wanted Peacemaker to carry a message of peace forward. The album follows singles released earlier in 2026, including “Empty Hands” and “Sacred Love.” “Empty Hands” was written by Staats with Forrest Eaglespeaker, Patrick Berthiaume and Ian Abel, while “Sacred Love” pairs Staats with Allison Russell.
The full album credits list Bryan Porter as executive producer. Darren “Jeter” Magierowski produced and mixed all 10 songs at Jukasa Media Group, where Magierowski and Jill Zimmermann handled recording. João Carvalho mastered the album at João Carvalho Mastering in Toronto. The album’s production was concentrated in Ontario, from recording and mixing in Ohsweken to mastering in Toronto.
Staats came through the Brantford music circuit before releasing Goodbye Goldia in 2015 and winning CTV’s The Launch in 2018. His 2023 album A Light in the Attic was nominated for Contemporary Roots Album of the Year at the 2024 JUNO Awards, and the SOCAN Foundation named him the 2023 TD Indigenous Songwriter Award grand prize winner. Ishkōdé’s current biography says Staats now divides his time between his home community of Six Nations and Nashville.
Ishkōdé Records, which released Peacemaker, is an Indigenous women-owned label helmed by ShoShona Kish and Amanda Rheaume. Launched in 2021, the label describes its work as supporting Indigenous narrative storytelling and amplifying Indigenous artists, songs and stories. Universal Music Canada is its distribution partner.
Staats is scheduled for two Ontario Festival of Small Halls dates later this month: Oct. 16 at Althorpe Bolingbroke Community Hall in Maberly and Oct. 18 at Morton Community Hall.
