Joel Plaskett has earned an awful lot of honourifics in his career so far, counting folk hero, indie darling, and national treasure among them. And that s just since the Halifax musician started making records of his own in 1999. For a decade before that, he was one-quarter of Thrush Hermit, a band of scrappy Superchunk mimics who became hard-rock revivalists and one of the last survivors of the 90s pop explosion of major-label interest in Halifax. Canada s east coast has never been much of a pop-culture mecca. Most musicians from the region who ve ever made it big moved away. But armed with a stubborn streak and a knack for great songwriting, Plaskett has kept Halifax as his home, building both a career and a music community there. Along the way, he s earned great respect: when he plays shows in Alberta, east-coast expats literally thank him for staying home. Nowhere With You is the study of how he pulled this off, from the origins of Canada s east-coast exodus to Plaskett s anointment as Halifax s Rick Rubin. It s a story about what happens when you call a city the new Seattle, about the lessons you learn playing to empty rooms in Oklahoma, and about defying radio-single expectations with rock operas and triple records. It s about doing what you want, where you want, no matter how much work it takes.