Expect a Crooked Path
Episode 506 - Del Barber
For music nerds/snobs/dorks, whatever you wanna call us, Spotify is kind of good and kind of bad.
On the one hand, it’s got a ton of music you already like and a bunch of music you may never have even known existed by those artists. It’s also got loads of similar tunes you may never have known existed by artists you may have never heard of.
On the other hand, between the playlists and the “influencers,” it’s a bit of a musical bukkake warehouse. It can be a bit overwhelming for me, and depending on my mood, I’ll either brave the vastness of it all or retire to music I already know and love.
But every once in a while, an artist comes along that grabs you and makes your ears, head, and heart stand up. Geoff and I were talking before the episode this week and he summed it up perfectly about the influence and impact of music and timing:
“Hitting the palette at the right time in your life is hugely important to how we form memories about and how we receive music.”
Del Barber is one of those artists that hit me at the right time.
My affinity for Folk/Alt-Country/American or whatever goes pretty deep. I’ve always been tangentially interested in country music. Those artists who can fit the country influence into their rock and roll always grabbed me - think Uncle Tupelo, The Silos, The Replacements… and on and on and on.
That convergence and influence of all things and its resurfacing as a new artistic expression has always fascinated me.
Del Barber is from the great white north - Canada. More specifically, just outside of Winnipeg. His father was a factory worker/artist and musician who would go on to co-write several songs with his son. His mother ran a rehabilitation facility that was housed in an old monastery. That’s an excellent petri dish for an artist… or, being Canadian, a hockey player. But, I think for the average Canadian, simply having a pulse is a good base for being a hockey player.
As a songwriter, Del started early - at 12. And then he began what is any musician’s typical path and trajectory. Which I think can be summed up in three words - figuring it out.
Figuring out the songwriting.
Figuring out the guitar.
Figuring out how to get gigs.
Figuring out how to play the gigs.
But figure it out, he did, and along the way, discovered a love of the outdoors and the solitude that can accompany it. So much so that even as a young artist moving up, he counter-intuitively moved away from a city to the country. In Canada, it sounds like the “country” may be a bit more vast than our picture of it here in the United States.
As he straddled the line between urban and rural life, Del was able to find his artistic voice. Or, as he put it:
“Against a backdrop of a geography so stark and subtle, I fell in love, and the prairie became my muse.”
For many of us, this journey or path we find ourselves on is often not straight. Life zigs when we want it to zag or take an unexpected right when we may’ve gone left. The point is - it’s often not a straight line.
As Del sings in “I Still Got You” off of his new album Almanac:
Expect a crooked path if you're letting me steer
As I dug into Del’s career, I found an artist who can blend in those elements of music that make songs ring true for me. He’s got the fire of punk rock to the empathy of folk music and all points in between. This is not to say Del’s music sounds like punk rock; it doesn’t… but its spirit fuels his craft; as does the empathy and universality of folk/folk rock - think Greg Brown or Nebraska-era Springsteen.
No matter what label you want to slap on Del’s work, American/Alt-Country/Folk/Singer-Songwriter/Folk Rock, they all apply, and you’ll hear them in his work.
What makes Del Barber unique is that he writes songs about experiences. Whether these are his, someone else’s, or a character he created, two things slape me across the face, their thematic universality and a belief that life is about the journey and not the destination.
On this episode of Abandoned Albums, Geoff and I chat with Del Barber all about this kind of stuff… and a lot more!
Listen here:
