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Residence fires burning: Gord Bamford celebrates household, drinkin' and Alberta residence with eleventh studio album, Fireplace It Up

Roughly 5 years in the past, Gord Bamford determined to return residence along with his household after spending almost 4 years in Nashville.

Born in Australia, residence has all the time been Alberta for the nation singer. After his mother and father’ divorce, he arrived in Lacombe on the age of 5. He and his household now reside on a rural property close to a lake in Bashaw. On Canadian Filth, the opening observe of his eleventh studio album, Fireplace It Up, he determined to pay homage to his environment. It was one of many first songs he co-wrote over Zoom through the pandemic, teaming up with Nashville-based Canadian expat Phill O’Donnell. It mixes patriotic satisfaction with wistful nostalgia, which have lengthy been go-to sentiments in Nashville and amongst mainstream American nation artists normally.

“I used to be reflecting on the place I used to be at that time in my life, out on the lake right here in Alberta,” says Bamford in an interview with Postmedia. “I used to be feeling actually fortunate to considerably be remoted in these instances the place I may considerably be regular. If I had lived within the metropolis …  I imply sooner or later we weren’t allowed to depart our homes. So I’m up right here capable of do my very own factor throughout these instances. I simply actually appreciated the land I lived on, the place I name residence. We had been searching for a extremely cool Canadian theme tune that we may put out.”

“I lived in Nashville for a very long time and there are a number of patriotic American songs,” he provides. “I really feel like we don’t discuss our nation sufficient. That is extra a testomony to the Canadian panorama the place I grew up and the place I believe is the most effective place to reside and lift a household. It touched on all that stuff. It felt actually good when it was finished and, hopefully, it would change into a staple tune in Canada for certain.”

It’s not solely the opening observe of Fireplace It Up however may even be a single and is the identify of the tour Bamford is at present on in western Canada. It’s not that the nation singer has given up on America or Nashville. He was already a longtime artist in Canada when he moved to Music Metropolis after touchdown a publishing deal.

“We liked Nashville,” he says. “It wasn’t new to me. I had been going to Nashville for 15 years earlier than that and being artistic and dealing there. Our children had been younger on the time, however we liked it down there and we undoubtedly return there for lengthy durations of time. It’s bought all the things you need, from sports activities to music to something you may think about. On the finish of the day, I discovered myself taking part in right here extra, actually, and it’s the place I had a superb, strong profession and our children actually wished to be again residence. It felt higher to go residence and lift our household right here in Alberta and deal with the Canadian market.”

So it’s no shock that the songs on Fireplace It Up have a major sense of place to them, even when most aren’t fairly as on-the-nose as Canadian Filth. A few of the songs on the report have been kicking round for years. When Bamford was recording songs for his 2021 album, Diamonds in a Whisky Glass, he discovered himself with an over-abundance of fabric. He had amassed one thing like 35 songs. Roughly half the brand new album is made up of songs from that interval and, in some instances, had already been set to tape years earlier. So prepping Fireplace It Up included sprucing or tweaking these tracks at Calgary’s MCC Recording Studios.

“It’s not that they’re dated by any means, however issues change from 12 months to 12 months,” he says. “It’s not simply the songs and the way in which music (modifications), however even what you wish to do in your thoughts. When you might have that a lot time to hearken to the music, you hearken to it over and over and listen to stuff you wish to change and make completely different. The luxurious that I’ve is that I do a number of work in Calgary at MCC Studios… To leap in my truck and head up there for a pair days to work within the studio isn’t a giant deal. So we had been in a position to try this and fine-tune it versus reducing a report in a few months and placing it collectively and out it is available in six months. We had virtually three years to take a seat on these things and hearken to it.”

The ten songs on Fireplace It Up are a mixture of mid-tempo rockers with fiery, hard-rock guitar riffs and anthemic choruses and heart-tugging ballads. There are songs about love and heartbreak, together with Date Her and the melancholy Haunted Hometown. There’s a tune about baseball, Cooperstown, and loads of songs about consuming akin to Leanin’ On the Bar, Sober in a Drinkin’ Music and the raucous Hair of the Honky Tonk Canine. There’s even one tune, Ballpark Beers, that’s about each baseball and consuming.

“You’ll be able to’t make a rustic report with out a few consuming songs,” he says.

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Whereas Bamford says he thinks the brand new report could also be his finest but, he additionally shows some good outdated Canadian modesty in admitting he nonetheless feels a twinge of tension each time a brand new report comes out. Whereas he’s a prolific author, most albums have him selecting tunes from exterior writers as effectively. He’s an artist but additionally sees himself as an entrepreneur who wants to remain on prime of recent sounds and traits in nation music and the type of sounds mainstream radio is searching for.

That stated, one of many first singles from the album and its closing observe was the ballad One Heartbeat From Heaven, about caregiving and loss,  which has the narrator coming to phrases with the sickness of a liked one. Bamford admits it to date hasn’t burned up the charts, nevertheless it appears to be resonating with loads of folks.

“It was loopy the quantity of emails we bought on that or posts, in all probability greater than I’ve ever seen on a tune,” he says. “It wasn’t a tune that blew up the radio charts by any means nevertheless it undoubtedly reached out to folks from completely different walks of life and might be one in all my favorite songs to this point… It was written by a good friend of mine, Buddy Owens and Galen Griffin, who I had written a number of songs with and spent a number of time with in Nashville. Once they wrote that tune, Galen’s spouse was going by means of most cancers and has since beat most cancers, which is nice, however that tune got here proper from the guts of somebody coping with it. It was undoubtedly a tune that impacted folks all around the world.”

Fireplace It Up is out on April 28.