He’s having more fun than ever and happy to be back in Golden.
That’s talented guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Russell deCarle’s take on his cross-Canada tour and performance at Keith King Park that took place July 12.
“I feel like I’m singing better than ever and I am in a happy place,” he says, noting he is grateful every day that, as a 70-year-old marking his 51st year of touring, he is still be able to do what he loves. “I lost a lot of friends and acquaintances during Covid and it’s never lost on me that healthy time is valuable. I don’t want to be spinning my wheels.”
The only wheels spinning are the ones on deCarle’s car as he has driven west from Newfoundland where he performed at the Tales, Trails and Tunes Festival in Gros Morne National Park.
While COVID kept him at home on the large acreage he shares with his partner, deCarle says boredom is never an issue as there is lots of work to do.
When he wasn’t tending his property, the award-winning (six Junos, Country Music Hall of Fame) artist was creating new music and is dropping a new album before the end of the summer. The title, End of the Road, which was the first tune he wrote for the album refers both to the fact that he lives at the end of a road and sometimes speaks of the end of a tour.
“It’s a Russell record, a mix of swing, blues, jazz and some country,” he says, with a chuckle. “I felt like I was channelling some old guy writing in the ’30s, writing in a closet and channelling some of those songs from the period I love.”
One song, “Take Away Your Blue,” is a little more personal than most of deCarle’s lyrics and reminiscent of The Inkspots, an American pop vocal group who gained international fame in the 1930s and 1940s, he says.
Always interested in change, deCarle says he will stumble across a chord, like it, and include it in a song.
“It’s the sad songs that stir it up for me,” says the artist who writes in the key of life – songs of aching loneliness, loss and broken hearts. But he’s quick to point out that he has a great life at home and on the road. “When I’m down, I pick up a guitar and it lifts me up.”
Former lead vocalist and bassist of the iconic Canadian country roots band Prairie Oyster, deCarle will be shared the July 12 Summer Kicks stage with Steve Briggs, a guitarist he hired in 2004 and someone he describes as a “serious musical compadre and soul partner.” Joining them will be Vancouver’s Paul Pigat, aka Cousin Harley, one of Canada’s premier roots, swing and rockabilly guitarists and songwriters, and bassist Jeremy Holmes, whose impressive jazz degree takes him to many recording studios and stages.
“I’m really happy to be here playing with my friends, who are also good players,” deCarle adds. “I’m honoured, and as corny as it sounds, it’s true.”
Carl Trinkwon & The Masters of Nun will also perform in the free concert that runs from 7 to 9 p.m.
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