Perfect harmony

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 19/10/2010 (5763 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Johnny Reid is in a good place.

The 37-year-old, Scottish-born Canadian is practically on the top of the world with a No. 1 album, A Place Called Love, — which has sold 90,000 copies since its release four weeks ago — and a sold-out cross-country tour that has to keep adding dates to keep up with demand.

Of course, his professional achievements wouldn’t be worth a thing if life weren’t going well for Reid at his Nashville home, where he’s a happily married father of four whose day-to-day experiences with his family inspire the songs that have made him a true man of the people and one of Canada’s most popular artists.

“I think the one thing that has connected with a lot of people is there’s a lot of people out there just like me,” he says over the phone in his still thick Scottish accent. “There are a lot of people who value love, who value morality, who value friends and value time. This album is a celebration of humanity, a celebration of love.”

It might sound like a cliché to some, but the upfront Juno Award winner is as sincere an entertainer as there is.

His four albums and live shows are filled with stories about his family, and many of his fans feel as if they know his wife Jennifer and children Justin, 9; Tyler, 8; Dylan, 4; and Ava, nine months, whose birth followed the death of Reid’s beloved grandmother, the inspiration for the new song Tell Me Margaret.

“In May of SSRq09 we lost my granny — that was a major thing for me. I felt I lost love even though I had not lost love, just my ability to wrap my arms around it,” he says. “Then a few weeks later we found out we were pregnant with our fourth baby. I was certain as my granny leaves the world, Ava Margaret comes down.”

“If there were two bookends of the album, that would be it.”

In the middle, Reid uses his uncle as a reference on That Man Is Me, offers up some advice to his son on Today I’m Gonna Try and Change the World and dedicates the love songs to his wife.

Stylistically, Reid, who moved to Canada 22 years ago, gets labelled a country singer, and while there are some elements of the genre on the album, A Place Called Love is dripping with soul, old-school R&B and even some gospel, that, when combined with his Rod Stewart-like raspy voice, makes it sound more like an album the Faces would have recorded for Stax than anything resembling contemporary country.

“I’ve never called myself a country singer, a rock singer, a soul singer or a blues singer,” Reid says. “I’ve used ‘blue-collar soul singer’ because I’ve written songs from my heart and sang them the way I wanted. Anyone that knows me knows I’m a huge soul fan. I’m a huge Pink Floyd fan.

“I want to take people to this place called love. I’m not trying to reinvent the wheel; I’m writing the way I want to sing them,” he says.

Whatever the style, people want to hear what he’s singing. In the past he has played multiple shows at the city’s casinos, but his new tour has been designed specifically for theatres.

He could have sold out the MTS Centre (based on ticket sales, he and Jason Bonham could have switched venues), but instead Reid is playing three sold-out shows at the Centennial Concert Hall to ensure it remains intimate.

“I love theatres. I like to connect with people,” he says. “I like to make sure the audience can get the best an audience can get. I could have easily put up a couple of risers and said, ‘Let’s go play arenas,’ but my plan is to make it bigger than it’s been so each person walks out and says, that was an experience.”

rob.williams@freepress.mb.ca

CONCERT PREVIEW

Johnny Reid

Oct. 19, 25 and 26, Centennial Concert Hall, 7:30 p.m.

Sold out