His records are my ‘go to’ ones when I need some familiarity to soothe my worries. “There are times I look back, and think, ‘Well, that’s not where I thought this one was going to go.’ I examine that in ‘Won’t Change The World.’ A song takes you where it wants to take you, if you are open and you surrender to those moments. Barney Bentall – Canadian pop/rock singer-songwriter.
Now, happily ensconced on Bowen Island, Barney is living the quiet life as a travelling troubadour counterbalancing the push to travel and perform with the pull of home and family. His debut album, Streets With No Lights, delivered 10 songs of pure life experience, not a “skip it” among them – earned from surviving car crashes, tours and relationships all framed up with simple, singable phrasing that wasted not one note nor drop of ink.
They became local favourites but had yet to make the big time. He would pursue music.“My choice of careers was not exactly popular,” he confesses.
Barney says he’s found a rhythm, performing with his friends and family when he wants to and playing for money when he has to. With ‘Don’t Wait For Me Marie’ I thought, ‘I’m going to write a song about a guy leaving the Fraser Valley near Vancouver in the 1800s to look for gold in the Cariboo.’ I wanted it to be an uptempo bluegrass song because we were starting The High Bar Gang; I was very immersed in that style of music. Two of his four adult children play professionally.
“That’s my band for almost 40 years now and that will always hold that place in my heart. The market is incredibly saturated. Six years later, he dropped the pseudonym and hit the stage as Barney Bentall and The Legendary Hearts. Older daughter, Jessica, now living in the Kootenays, plays with the group Wild Honey and has released a record.Younger son Dustin has the highest profile.
Is the sun I see rising when the moon goes down The same sun that rises over my baby's town I hear her voice whenever I pray That these walls'll come tumbling down some day I tried hard and got dealt bad cards Right now, I’m focused on what I am doing on my own, but the other projects keep me learning, traveling new pathways, and keeps music vital for me.”As frequent collaborator Jim Cuddy, who guested on “Won’t Change The World,” notes, “Barney had a similar trajectory as a neo-roots troubadour to the one we experienced in Blue Rodeo. “Part of my nature is I love being home, yet I will get restless and want to go on an adventure.”Those adventures take him across the province in the company of long-time friends Shari Ulrich and Tom Taylor under the moniker BTU or touring BC and Alberta as the Cariboo Express, a Grand Ole Opry style band Barney and his musical mates have pulled together. They cannot understand why old Bentall would want to … His wife tells me he has little in common with his aging multimillionaire peers either. He was one of the most interesting, and most intelligent people I have ever met. While under contract to Columbia, Barney and the band released six studio albums and 20 singles.
He’s quite the machine.”“I divide my time between Bowen, the road and the ranch,” says Barney.
“She’s a little shy.
“It seemed like a good time to step back a bit.
‘Let’s see where you want to go with this.’ Dustin wanted to talk about his grandfather, and he started writing it about how the guy was always heading north to pan for gold in the Cariboo. It’s wonderful when we do get together for some gigs because I do have my solo career and the Cariboo Express project. Come in tomorrow at 10. I mean I was really desperate.
And to raise beef cattle.“If I had had a really good relationship with the record company, I probably wouldn’t have done the cattle ranching thing,” he says, admitting ranching wasn’t the idyllic life he thought it would be. That’s what was kind of missing for me when it was just a rock band. “It was completely out of their wheelhouse. At its peak, the band was playing 200 dates a year, graduating from touring in a van to a motorhome to tour buses.Barney Bentall and the Legendary Hearts released four further studio albums: In 2000, Barney took time off from music to reflect on the next phase of his career. For a marriage and a family to survive and even thrive through what a career in music throws at you, I think that’s an accomplishment and I really credit her in that department.”Maintaining that even keel includes his home on Bowen Island, where he swims, snowshoes and mountain bikes, and returning to Clinton, the scene of his self-imposed exile.“We don’t own the ranching one, but we still have a quarter section,” he says of a small property he retains near the original cattle ranch he once owned. He is a very poignant songwriter. With his brother-in-law, he and his wife then purchased a cattle ranch in the Cariboo region of British Columbia.
“I’m acutely aware of the dichotomy, but I’m happy the way it’s balanced out. It’s fun. The music industry was decidedly friendlier and not as competitive. Who knows what will happen next?”His son, who accompanied Barney on his last record, says he’d like to write a whole album with his dad. Now, happily ensconced on Bowen Island, Barney is living the quiet life as a travelling troubadour counterbalancing the push to travel and perform with the pull of home and family.“I think life is a long journey to the point where you understand your nature and then you accept your nature,” says Barney.