Not quite fitting into the country-music mould Manitoban Barber sings about the rural life, but remains ambiguous about genre By: Alan Small Posted: 7:00 PM CDT Wednesday, Apr. 19, 2023

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This article was published 19/04/2023 (871 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Old Farmer’s Almanac goes back to 1792 and is filled with stories, amusing one-liners, gardening tips, and, most notably, long-term weather forecasts that predicted last fall that Canada would have a “sneaky-cold winter” in 2022-23.

You’ll receive no weather predictions from Del Barber’s upcoming album, Almanac, but he offers plenty of wry wisdom and thoughts on life from what the singer-songwriter has learned while living on the Prairies, specifically from his point of view from Inglis, a community in western Manitoba.

”I think about the Old Farmer’s Almanac and the advice they give us, the pragmatic advice,” Barber says. “Not so much emotional or spiritual but advice based on what’s happened before.

“For us in making music too, we’re always referencing historical sounds and try to put a crop of songs in that people know where it’s from, they get the references. Musicians are putting out almanacs all the time.”

Almanac comes out April 28, but he’ll show off a good portion of the 12-song collection tonight at the Park Theatre.

Instead of starting in Winnipeg as he often does when he releases a new record, Barber started his latest tour on the West Coast and is winding his way across the country like a warm front.

“I’m pretty excited this one’s in the middle (of the tour) so people can hear a band that’s as tight as a band can be,” Barber says. “It’s the best band I’ve ever had.”

Almanac contains Barber’s observations and advice he’s picked up living in an agricultural area such as Inglis, which is noted for its five old wooden grain elevators, which were once commonplace on the Prairies but have become historic monuments.

His experience in the countryside comes across in Still Got You, the first song Barber wrote for record. He appreciates the openness of rural life, whether it’s how the stars come alive in a night sky without streetlights or the family and neighbours he’s grown to value since moving to Inglis from Winnipeg eight years ago.

“This one is distinctly, esthetically, connected to the Parkland of Manitoba,” Barber says. “I just keep falling in love with that place over and over and the more years go by, the less I can see myself living anywhere else.

“I feel like we’re making a home there and I’m really proud of it, and this record is a celebration of rural life in the Parkland, and unapologetically so.”

While country music has become more urban — Nashville’s metro population is close to two million and the pickup trucks in today’s songs haul boats and camping gear instead of fenceposts or bags of seed — Barber’s brand is a throwback to decidedly rural themes.

“I think it’s fair to say I don’t really fit into that country-music mould,” he says. “I never know if I should call my music country, folk or Americana and it doesn’t matter to me. I am writing songs about rural life, so whatever that makes it.”

That shows in the tune One Good Year, written about how farmers keep their spirits high while margins are “thinner than a supermodel,” all the while hoping for the elusive combination of bumper crops and high prices.

Barber, 39, who has two young children with his partner Haylan and helps out at her family’s farm when he’s not on the road, is beginning to embrace the way farmers and their families enjoy the life they lead, through good times and bad.

Recording artists live the same way, hoping the next record will be the one good album that takes root with fans and critics.

“We’re all looking for a song to have some legs, we’re looking for shows to get bigger and what if we stopped looking for that and started just trying to be thankful for the thing we get to do every night,” he says.

“I don’t know how much currency my name carries and I guess that doesn’t matter to me as much as it used to. I really feel like I’m making it because I love it now, and I don’t know if I always did that.”

Barber’s father also plays a key part in Almanac. Boyd Barber was 72 when he died in Winnipeg in September 2021, but he passed on a lifetime love of music to Del, and the two even traded on songwriting ideas to one another.

“He wrote a lot of songs on his own and he often would send me what he thought were some of his best ideas and he would tell me to do what I want with them,” Barber remembers. “Through that kind of openness we started writing as much as we could together, and man, I’m so grateful we did that. I’m so grateful I get to sing songs and lines he wrote every night. I feel so connected to him and his perspective on the world.

“Wisdom isn’t available to 20-year-olds, it certainly wasn’t available to me unless you have somebody like my dad to tap into and lean on… It did wonders for me and my writing.”

The songwriting sessions helped build a father-son relationship, but it wasn’t a mutual admiration society. Boyd could be a harsh critic, Del says.

”He had no tolerance for certain types of songwriting and he was not afraid to tell me when I was stepping into those spots that he hated,” he says. “We had some pretty serious fights about it over the years.

“I’ve often talked about it on stage, ‘You should try to write a song with your dad or mom, and if you do, I recommend using email instead of doing it in person.’ ”

It’s fitting that one of Boyd’s songs, On My Way Out the Door, a fast-paced bluegrass number, is the closer on Almanac.

“I’ve been around a time or two, I’m gonna settle my scores, on my way out the door,” the song’s final chorus goes.

”He was a bit morose but he wasn’t afraid to laugh about the end,” Del says. “When he got sick, he told me he wouldn’t be buying any more green bananas. Comedy was a way to cope with what was going on and I hope I’m like that at the end.

“It’s a real simple song but it’s a great one to sing.”

Alan.Small@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @AlanDSmall