Del Barber releases his latest album Prairieography via True North Records on 14th April 2014, an album he’s being busy touring across Canada this year. In essence the album examines what it means to be from somewhere and how the place itself influences who a person is and how are they determined by it.
Del Barber grew up in the Canadian Prairies a land which forms the creative backbone of much of his work. The idea for the album came about after hearing Ian Tyson’s Cowboyography (1987). Ian, a musician, rancher, storyteller, and Canadian icon was also half of the early-’60s folk group Ian & Sylvia.
From that album a seed was planted with a desire to connect people to the Prairies: to portray his home from the grain-fields of the south to the pasturelands of the west and the factory floors and slaughterhouses of the city.
In the video he makes the point that in the last few years he has travelled 200,000 miles, performed 100’s of shows but the more time he spends away from home the more he feels the need to dig in and re-connect. The album promises to be a winner on many fronts. It is “blanketed in warmth, subtle textures and true-to-life imperfections; the rhythm section was captured live to analogue tape and uses audio sounds from combines and augers.”
The album will be in our radio playlist very shortly.