Richmond Hill, Ontario musician Katie Dauson has released "Fresh Sugar," a country rock love ballad written on her dad's birthday after a spin of a Raspberries record handed her the hook and title in the same instant.

"You're just like fresh sugar baby, it's the sweetest thing I know, your lovin' drives me crazy, and you electrify my soul," she sings on the chorus. Dauson recorded the track at Cleveland Sound Lab in Vaughan, Ontario with producer James Nickle, and wrote, played rhythm guitar, and designed the single artwork herself.

Dauson's sound blends rock and roll, rockabilly, surf, country, folk, and bluegrass, drawing on The Beatles, Bob Dylan, and Gordon Lightfoot. Before music, she studied physics and astronomy at York University and worked at the campus observatory — a path interrupted by health setbacks before an open mic performance changed her direction for good.

Catch her live October 23 at the El Mocambo Tavern in Toronto.

Listen: https://open.spotify.com/track/2bYSiTl7YTyBGl8q2NkLIa