Hij zal de Vlaamse muziekliefhebber niet bekeren tot het dragen van een belt buckle, cowboy boots, een stetson noch een linedanceke doen placeren. Del Barber weet echter hoe je emoties op een eerlijke en ingetogen manier via een sterke song weet te brengen. Wil je het kaf van het koren gescheiden zien en écht goede country & western - bij uitbreiding americana - leren kennen, dan weet je waar je moet zijn.
En ja, het is alweer eens een Canadees.
Almanac verschijnt op 28 april 2023 via acronym Records.
Luister ook naar: Still Got You
Ter Info
“I wrote it before my dad passed—before he was even sick—but it became an anthem for me in the months after his passing,” says three-time Juno Award nominee Del Barber about his new song, “I Told You So.” Originally written from the perspective of Barber’s neighbor who’d lost her husband, the song’s interpretation of grief has such a universal quality that even Barber ended up applying to his own life, but maybe that was its purpose all along. “Looking back, I feel like this song was a gift from [my dad],” he says.
“They were a great team,” recalls Barber, thinking about his neighbor and her late husband. “They had land and a nice string of horses.” When he passed, he left a hole in her life that was—and is—impossible to fill and she still catches herself talking to him. “I Told You So” is her telling her late husband about the silly little moments she wishes he could’ve been there for, and while it’s a simple premise, Barber’s song lands heavily—certainly more so for anyone who has been in the same situation. “No one wants to hear ‘I told you so.’”
“I Told You So” and Barber’s recently released single “Still Got You” are both songs from his upcoming album Almanac. Coming out on April 28th via acronym Records, Almanac follows Barber’s acclaimed 2021 album Stray Dogs: Collected B-Sides Vol. 1, made during the height of pandemic restrictions. While Stray Dogs brought Barber to the end of one season, Almanac doggedly led him into the next. Barber wrote the twelve songs that make up his eighth studio album with collective intention. “I want my work to be seen as subtle by definition,” he says. “I want my statements to come across as questions rather than decrees or opinions. Some of these songs are descriptions of my world through my own eyes; a way of songwriting I’ve never felt I’ve done well until now. Writing Almanac felt like I had another chance. It felt like spring.”
