Local country singer pens anthem of gratitude for front-line workers
Proceeds from sales of tune earmarked for food bank
Chris Labelle has a hard time getting through his latest song, Frontliners, without becoming emotional.
The Ottawa country singer wrote the tune — an unabashedly sentimental anthem of gratitude for front-line workers — during one of the sleepless nights leading up to the birth of his first child with wife Julie. Their baby boy, Grayson, was born April 27 at the Montfort Hospital as it was dealing with an outbreak of COVID-19.
Bringing a child into a world upended by a pandemic was just the start of the worries that kept him tossing and turning that night. He was also concerned about his mother, Heather, a triple-bypass surgery survivor who works as a cashier in a grocery store, and brother Kyle, who works at the Ottawa Hospital General Campus.
The night he wrote the song, Labelle said he received a text from his brother that went something like this: “Hey Chris, this is real. It’s a big deal. I want to say I love you.”
Feeling powerless to do anything to help, he turned to his acoustic guitar.
“We’re told to stay at home and they have to work. I’m thinking, what can I do to do my part? The only way I know how to do it is to express it through a song,” says the 38-year-old.
“I couldn’t sleep so I picked up my guitar and the song basically wrote itself in an hour.”
The next day, he shot a video of himself singing it, and posted it to Facebook. The comments from friends, fans and family members poured in, prompting him to tackle a more professional recording, working remotely with Ottawa producer Steve Foley.
There was also a quick turnaround on a new, heart-tugging video that features images of essential workers, and even a glimpse of Ontario Premier Doug Ford.
“A lot of them have no clue if you have COVID or not so they’re fighting this thing that’s invisible. It’s very scary,” Labelle says. “I just wanted to cheer them up. Even if you’ve had a long day at the McDonald’s drive-thru, the message is: ‘Thank you, guys.’ ”
The video made an instant connection, with more than 500 shares the first day. Two weeks later, it’s been viewed more than 200,000 times, and is turning into Labelle’s biggest hit since he parted ways with the River Town Saints, the Arnprior-based country band known for high-energy tunes like 2016’s Cherry Bomb.
“I love the guys, but I just wanted to do music for myself and write what was inside of me,” says Labelle, who was the band’s lead singer.
Tragically, a few months after Labelle’s departure, Saints’ bassist Daniel DiGiacomo died suddenly at the age of 31 of a blood clot. The band has since regrouped with new members and is going strong.
Labelle, meanwhile, is still not sleeping much, mostly because of the baby, but he’s doing his best to fit in some songwriting.
“When the world gets back to normal, I’ll want to get into the studio and record this material,” he said, adding that any money made from Frontliners will be donated to the Ottawa Food Bank. lsaxberg@postmedia.com