Del Barber
Encyclopedia
Del Barber is an independent folk, folk rock, Americana, and alt-country singer-songwriter, musician, and record producer. Barber was nominated for a 2011 Juno Award
for his Love Songs of the Last Twenty in the category of Roots & Traditional Album of the Year. Later in 2011 he won two Western Canadian Music Awards for Independent Album of the Year and Roots Solo Recording of the Year.
, Manitoba
, Canada
. He cites some of his influences as Townes Van Zandt
, Greg Brown, John Prine
, Emmylou Harris
, Steve Earle
, Wilco
, Bruce Springsteen
, Neil Young
, Gram Parsons
, Bob Dylan
, among many others. Del is also influenced by authors such as Farley Mowat
, Wendell Berry
, Jack Kerouac
, and Kathleen Norris
. He is also influenced by community
and food
.
. During his one year at North Park University
, he would continue to write music.
After the release of two early albums, Barber went back into the studio to record his eleven track album "Where the City Ends." With many positive reviews of this album, he continued to tour extensively in support of the album. In 2010, Barber released what would be considered his fourth entitled Love Songs for the Last Twenty. Once again, Barber had critical success with the album and continued to tour extensively. In August 2010, Barber was nominated for a Western Canadian Music Award for Roots Solo Album of the Year for Where the City Ends. The album also received a second nomination for Best Album Design of the Year which album designer Brooke Nelson was nominated. In 2011, he was nominated for a Juno Award for Roots & Traditional Album of the Year for "Love Songs of the Last Twenty." On April 11, 2011 Barber appeared as the musical guest and interview on CBC Q
with Jian Ghomeshi
. The show was taped live as a part of The Winnipeg Comedy Festival
. Barber performed "Miles & Years" and "As Far As I Can Tell." Later in 2011, Barber's career continued to reach new heights when he won two Western Canadian Music Awards for Independent Album of the Year and Roots Solo Recording of the Year.
Currently, Barber is in the studio working on his next album.
Love Songs for the Last Twenty
Juno Awards of 2011
The Juno Awards of 2011, honours Canadian music industry achievements in the latter part of 2009 and in most of 2010. The awards presented in Toronto, Ontario, Canada during the weekend of 26 and 27 March 2011. A week of related events on 21 March 2011...
for his Love Songs of the Last Twenty in the category of Roots & Traditional Album of the Year. Later in 2011 he won two Western Canadian Music Awards for Independent Album of the Year and Roots Solo Recording of the Year.
Early life
Barber was born in WinnipegWinnipeg
Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada, and is the primary municipality of the Winnipeg Capital Region, with more than half of Manitoba's population. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers .The name...
, Manitoba
Manitoba
Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. He cites some of his influences as Townes Van Zandt
Townes Van Zandt
John Townes Van Zandt , best known as Townes Van Zandt, was an American Texas Country-folk music singer-songwriter, performer, and poet...
, Greg Brown, John Prine
John Prine
John Prine is an American country/folk singer-songwriter. He has been active as a recording artist and live performer since the early 1970s.-Biography:...
, Emmylou Harris
Emmylou Harris
Emmylou Harris is an American singer-songwriter and musician. In addition to her work as a solo artist and bandleader, both as an interpreter of other composers' works and as a singer-songwriter, she is a sought-after backing vocalist and duet partner, working with numerous other artists including...
, Steve Earle
Steve Earle
Stephen Fain "Steve" Earle is an American singer-songwriter known for his rock and Texas Country as well as his political views. He is also a producer, author, a political activist, and an actor, and has written and directed a play....
, Wilco
Wilco
Wilco is an American alternative rock band based in Chicago, Illinois. The band was formed in 1994 by the remaining members of alternative country group Uncle Tupelo following singer Jay Farrar's departure. Wilco's lineup has changed frequently, with only singer Jeff Tweedy and bassist John...
, Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band...
, Neil Young
Neil Young
Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...
, Gram Parsons
Gram Parsons
Gram Parsons was an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and pianist. Parsons is best known for his work within the country genre; he also mixed blues, folk, and rock to create what he called "Cosmic American Music"...
, Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
, among many others. Del is also influenced by authors such as Farley Mowat
Farley Mowat
Farley McGill Mowat, , born May 12, 1921 is a conservationist and one of Canada's most widely-read authors.His works have been translated into 52 languages and he has sold more than 14 million books. He achieved fame with the publication of his books on the Canadian North, such as People of the...
, Wendell Berry
Wendell Berry
Wendell Berry is an American man of letters, academic, cultural and economic critic, and farmer. He is a prolific author of novels, short stories, poems, and essays...
, Jack Kerouac
Jack Kerouac
Jean-Louis "Jack" Lebris de Kerouac was an American novelist and poet. He is considered a literary iconoclast and, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Kerouac is recognized for his spontaneous method of writing, covering topics such as Catholic...
, and Kathleen Norris
Kathleen Norris
Kathleen Thompson Norris was an American novelist and wife of fellow writer Charles Norris, whom she wed in 1909...
. He is also influenced by community
Community
The term community has two distinct meanings:*a group of interacting people, possibly living in close proximity, and often refers to a group that shares some common values, and is attributed with social cohesion within a shared geographical location, generally in social units larger than a household...
and food
Food
Food is any substance consumed to provide nutritional support for the body. It is usually of plant or animal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals...
.
Career
Barber began recording music while attending Covenant Bible College. From there he would start playing shows all across North AmericaNorth America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
. During his one year at North Park University
North Park University
North Park University is a four-year university located at 3225 W. Foster Avenue on the north side of Chicago, Illinois in the North Park neighborhood. It was founded in 1891 by the Evangelical Covenant Church and shares its campus with the denomination's only seminary...
, he would continue to write music.
After the release of two early albums, Barber went back into the studio to record his eleven track album "Where the City Ends." With many positive reviews of this album, he continued to tour extensively in support of the album. In 2010, Barber released what would be considered his fourth entitled Love Songs for the Last Twenty. Once again, Barber had critical success with the album and continued to tour extensively. In August 2010, Barber was nominated for a Western Canadian Music Award for Roots Solo Album of the Year for Where the City Ends. The album also received a second nomination for Best Album Design of the Year which album designer Brooke Nelson was nominated. In 2011, he was nominated for a Juno Award for Roots & Traditional Album of the Year for "Love Songs of the Last Twenty." On April 11, 2011 Barber appeared as the musical guest and interview on CBC Q
Q (radio show)
Q is a Canadian radio show, which airs on CBC Radio One. Hosted by Jian Ghomeshi, the program is a national arts magazine show. The program is also now syndicated to public radio stations in the United States through Public Radio International....
with Jian Ghomeshi
Jian Ghomeshi
Jian Ghomeshi is a Canadian broadcaster, writer, musician and producer of Iranian descent who was raised in Thornhill, Ontario. Now based in Toronto, he is the host of the national daily cultural affairs talk program, Q, on CBC Radio One and Bold TV...
. The show was taped live as a part of The Winnipeg Comedy Festival
Winnipeg Comedy Festival
The Winnipeg Comedy Festival is an annual comedy festival, held in Winnipeg, Manitoba.Created by the Osborne Village Cultural Centre in collaboration with CBC Radio, performances from the festival are also broadcast as a radio series on CBC Radio One and as a television series on The Comedy...
. Barber performed "Miles & Years" and "As Far As I Can Tell." Later in 2011, Barber's career continued to reach new heights when he won two Western Canadian Music Awards for Independent Album of the Year and Roots Solo Recording of the Year.
Currently, Barber is in the studio working on his next album.
Band members
When not performing by himself in his solo work, Barber plays with his back up band The Del Barber Band. The members are as follows.- Del Barber - Acoustic guitar, vocals, harmonica, mandolin, banjo
- Nadine Klowak - Vocals
- Luke Enns - Electric guitarElectric guitarAn electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
- Caleb Friesen - Drums
- Jean-Paul Laurendeau - Bass guitarBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
- Bill Western - Pedal steel guitarPedal steel guitarThe pedal steel guitar is a type of electric guitar that uses a metal bar to "fret" or shorten the length of the strings, rather than fingers on strings as with a conventional guitar. Unlike other types of steel guitar, it also uses pedals and knee levers to affect the pitch, hence the name "pedal"...
Studio albums
Where the City Ends- Release date: April 10, 2009
- Label: Independent
- Format: CDCompact DiscThe Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
, Digital downloadMusic downloadA music download is the transferral of music from an Internet-facing computer or website to a user's local computer. This term encompasses both legal downloads and downloads of copyright material without permission or payment...
- "Morning Song"
- "Story That You Tell"
- "Where the City Ends"
- "Love is Just a Wrecking Ball"
- "Muddy Palms"
- "Hurry"
- "Leather Boot Blues"
- "Harvest"
- "Long Long Winter"
- "God Damn Desire"
- "The Party Song"
Love Songs for the Last Twenty
- Release date: June 15, 2010
- Label: Independent
- Format: CDCompact DiscThe Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
, Digital downloadMusic downloadA music download is the transferral of music from an Internet-facing computer or website to a user's local computer. This term encompasses both legal downloads and downloads of copyright material without permission or payment...
- "As far as I Can Tell"
- "Chicago"
- "Love Song for the Last Twenty"
- "Miles and Years"
- "Home to Maniotba"
- "Coming Home with the Summer"
- "Story I Can Believe"
- "If I Told You That I Love You"
- "Songwriter's Lament"
- "62 Richmond"
- "Thunder Bay"
- "Katy Sparrow"
Awards and nominations
| Year | Nominated work | Event | Award | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Where the City Ends | Western Canadian Music Awards Western Canadian Music Awards The Western Canadian Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony for music in the western portion of Canada, that originated in its current form in 2003... |
Roots Solo Album of the Year | |
| 2011 | Love Songs for the Last Twenty | Juno Awards | Roots & Traditional Album of the Year | |
| Western Canadian Music Awards Western Canadian Music Awards The Western Canadian Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony for music in the western portion of Canada, that originated in its current form in 2003... |
Independent Album Of The Year | |||
| Roots Solo Recording Of The Year |