Finding Lost Country

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This article was published 16/08/2023 (842 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Lost Country isn’t just the name of Sean Burns’ band. It’s the concept behind his new album.

The Winnipeg singer and bassist with Corb Lund’s alt-country group, the Hurtin’ Albertans, has dug deep into the lives and music of obscure country artists from Canada’s past.

The playlist includes classic old weepers and honky-tonk tunes, such as Destroy Me, a number by Saskatchewan cowboy singer Chef Adams that Burns and Lost Country released as a single earlier this month as a preview for an upcoming album, Lost Country, due out Oct. 27.

Burns tracked down and interviewed singers such as Adams, Alberta singer-songwriter Dick Damron and Joyce Smith, another Albertan who was dubbed the Canadian Queen of Country Music on a 1965 record, for Boots and Saddle, the show on CKUW 95.9 FM he hosted from 2016 to 2021, and for his podcast, The Northern Report.

That led to Burns rounding up Lost Country in the studio to bring their tunes back in the spotlight.

“I was mostly trying to track down players from the ’60s and ’70s and they remembered the old days and told me some great stories,” says Burns, who plays the Blue Note Park Thursday night with Lost Country. “Most of them were just regional or local performers but didn’t get much national recognition, and some didn’t even get regional recognition.

“Working-class folks. Great material, though.”

He caught the music-collecting bug early when listening to records from his father, Mike, who had crossed paths or performed with some of the artists in his early days. Others he scrounged in second-hand shops or by meeting the artists themselves.

“Once I started doing the radio program I was really digging around for Canadian stuff because I didn’t find much current Canadian stuff that I liked listening to,” Burns says.

“Some of them were (suspicious) at first. They couldn’t believe someone from Winnipeg was trying to track them down and talk with them about things that happened 50, 60 years ago.”

That included Adams, who performed mostly in Toronto starting in the 1960s and was able to record several LPs and singles over the course of his lengthy career. He was 90 when he died in 2017.

Burns has hardly had time to get Lost Country together since he joined another Winnipegger, guitarist Grant Siemens, with Lund’s Hurtin’ Albertans in 2021.

Making flight connections back to Winnipeg can be difficult from mountain cities such as Bozeman, Mont., but playing in New York, Chicago or historic venues, such as Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium — the band played Grand Ole Opry’s original home in July — makes the job a memorable one.

“We’re usually doing six shows a week and they’re all really meaningful, because (Lund) has a pretty dedicated fan base everywhere we go,” Burns says. “Some places there’s a thousand or 1,500 people and sometimes there’s 200 people, depends where we are.”

He plays upright bass with Lund and he’s doing the same with Lost Country, which has become a trio, with Siemens and drummer Joanna Miller teaming up with Burns.

Leading a country group while playing bass is a rarity, because it’s more difficult than fronting as a guitar player.

“I always loved the singing bass player and I think it adds to the show now in a different way, visually, especially playing the upright bass,” he says.

“When I’m playing guitar and fronting the band, I have a lot of freedom. I can stop playing if I want to, but when I’m playing bass, it’s like you’re constantly locked in. A bass mistake is always the most glaring.”

The audience will likely be forgiving of any slip-ups — Blue Note Park and the nearby Times Change(d) High and Lonesome Club are home turf for Burns and his band members.

He worked the bar and the door at Times Change(d) before the pandemic, and when COVID-19 shut down concerts in 2020 and 2021, Burns organized Winnipeg artists to record a CD, We Still Gotta Lotta Livin’ to Do, to help the honky-tonk joint, which is owned by John Scoles, who also runs Blue Note Park.

“John did a great job trying to find ways to keep everyone working or to find some money for everybody who’d been loyal to the club and to him,” Burns says. “That was a lot of work and it came off really strong and everyone got paid for their song and that really felt good.

“John’s a special guy; he finds a way for these things to work. Everyone wants to work with him and help him because he’s so good to everybody in the community.”

Alan.Small@winnipegfreepress.com

Twitter: @AlanDSmall