By Don Urquhart, Times Chronicle
Featuring music from his acclaimed 2021 album Hourglass, iconic Canadian folk singer Murray McLauchlan is coming to Oliver’s Venables Theatre as part of his eight city BC tour.
Although it seems unlikely anyone would not be familiar with McLauchlan, he is one of Canada’s leading folk music artists and one of the early artists to carve out a sustainable career in Canada.
His success over a 50 year career is underscored by no less than 11 Juno Awards from 24 nominations to date, alongside an impressive 20 album catalog.
While McLauchlan’s work has included elements of country, rock and pop, his music has remained steadily within the orbit of the folk tradition.
Known for his socially-conscious songs that often represent the underclass, he achieved wide popularity with his breakthrough single “Farmer’s Song” (1972), which earned him the first of his Juno collection.
Along with Farmer’s Song, Down by the Henry Moore, Whispering Rain and Sweeping the Spotlight Away are now considered Canadian standards.
And alongside his multiple Junos he has also received the Order of Canada, The Governor General’s Performing Arts Award, has been inducted into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame and is soon to be inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame. And he’s also a painter, an author, an actor, and a radio host.
The Hourglass album is a collection of songs that address the shocking events of the recent past and the ongoing trajectory of a troubled world but also the sweetness of life itself.
The album is considered one of his most political and personal yet, and is composed of a deeply personal series of poems that McLauchlan then fused to “rootsy guitar licks and riffs”.
“Soaring pedal steel, delicate piano melodies and deft guitar playing bring the lyrics to life, in a project that ultimately celebrates the resilience of the human spirit”.
In a review, UK-based Maverick Country Music Magazine noted the album is perhaps his finest. “The album feels much like a simple request of what we need to do better as a society all set to swooning pedal steels and arpeggiated acoustic guitars.”
McLauchlan says, “As a songwriter I know that it’s not enough to sit in your kitchen and write. Your songs need to be heard.
“Music is a communicative art and if it isn’t brought in front of people there is no way to tell if that end has been met. I like to think of a concert tour as a kind of roving gallery to test your art and your ideas.
“I try to do my very best to make it worthwhile for folks to be there and to perhaps look at things in a new way when they leave.”
And this, in a nutshell, is the Murray McLauchlan concert experience.
Murray McLauchlan brings his Hourglass tour to Venables Theatre on May 6 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $67.50 (tax & facility fees included, additional surcharges may apply) and are available on the theatre website or by calling the box office at 250-498-1626.
