Bentall set to headline all-star virtual concert
Under normal circumstances, Barney Bentall says he would consider his recent concerts to be his “worst nightmare as a performer.”
The veteran Canadian singer-songwriter has slowly but surely been returning to the stage in the past few months, usually playing acoustically by himself in half-empty theatres to socially distanced audiences.
“It’s like those bad dreams you have about performing,” says Bentall, in an interview with Postmedia from Bowen Island, B.C. “You go there and it’s so sparsely attended and the booth people are wearing masks and yet they are sold-out shows. But as soon as you play, people start responding. For me, this is what I’ve done for the biggest portion of my life.”
Bentall says the COVID-19 pandemic has led to both a pent-up desire from fans to hear live music and musicians to perform it. All of which makes his ambitious show at the National Music Centre this Friday all the more noteworthy. Barney Bentall and The Cariboo Express will be a starstudded virtual concert to raise funds for Classroom Champions, a program that connects underserved students with mentors and support teachers in Calgary. The concert will be live-streamed from Studio Bell, home of the National Music Centre. Bentall will perform alongside Corb Lund, Mariel Buckley, Matt Masters, Ridley Bent and Bentall’s son, Dustin, among others. Blue Rodeo’s Jim Cuddy’s Toronto performance will be beamed in as part of the festivities and Ron MacLean will serve as the evening’s virtual host.
For the past 15 years, Bentall’s Cariboo Express has raised more than $3.5 million for various western Canadian charities. Last year, he oversaw a similar concert at the Bella Concert Hall, with all proceeds going to Classroom Champions.
Bentall has been performing since the late 1970s when he first began playing in bands in southwest Calgary. Still, while he has spent more than 40 years in the CanRock trenches, he says the pandemic’s impact on live music has been unprecedented. As with many Canadian musicians, Bentall was about to head to Saskatoon for the March 15 Juno Awards when he received word that they had been cancelled. It foreshadowed a complete shutdown of live music for the next few months.
“For me and all my peers, everything completely evaporated,” he says. “From there, I’ve been lucky there seems to be a lot of virtual work. Ultimately, that’s a little lessthan-awesome in my mind. It’s better than nothing and people want to connect with music and see it happening, but it’s a bit of a hard substitute for live music. But also, I’ve found myself doing a lot of solo work in theatres where you’re socially distanced and sell 50 tickets. It’s a thrill for me to play solo, I love it. So, there’s starting to be work. But I think there is often civic support for theatres but, holy smokes, the venues . . . I was talking to Corb the other day and to find out that Ranchman’s has closed its doors, you realize what a huge impact this whole thing is having on live music and the venues.”
While COVID safety protocols will be observed, the Nov. 6 Cariboo Express show from Calgary should hopefully act as a reminder of the communal power of live music. Bentall has always had a soft spot for Calgary, which is where he began his musical career. In March 2019, he returned to the city as part of a lengthy tour to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Barney Bentall and the Legendary Hearts self-titled debut. When he recorded the album, Bentall was a 33-year-old father who had spent a decade in his adopted home of Vancouver trying to make it in the music business. The album became a platinum bestseller and earned Bentall’s Legendary Hearts a Juno win for “most promising group of the year.”
Since then, he has continued recording and touring. His most recent release was 2017’s “The Drifter and the Preacher,” which features the song, “The Miner,” which he co-wrote and performed with his son Dustin.
Bentall says he hopes to continue writing songs with Dustin and is also working on an album of instrumental music with Spirit of the West co-founder Geoffrey Kelly. But, for the most part, songwriting has become a solitary and occasionally slow pursuit for Bentall. In January, he will be releasing the new single and video called “Cosmic Dreamers.”