Spencer Burton’s songs of hurtin’
JOHN LAW
The set-up seems strikingly familiar: A former Niagara punker now getting national attention as a folk/pop singer.
The answer is normally Dallas Green. But judges will also accept Spencer Burton now.
The former guitarist for Welland’s Attack in Black hasn’t changed his appearance much since the band played its final show in 2010. There’s still the tattoos and gruff, red beard that makes him look like a wildling from Game of Thrones. But he screams less now. The volume is turned down. The storytelling more personal.
And with his third solo album, Songs Of, the buzz is genuine. Across 12 impeccably crafted songs recorded in Nashville with producer Andrija Tokic (Alabama Shakes), Burton sings the praises of the rural life (Small Towns), the bliss of finding the perfect partner (Unmistakable Love) and on the stunning Broken Hearts and Broken Chains, leans on a gospel-like choir to endure life’s ruts: “Got no God that I can thank / Got no money in the bank.”
On the line from Ridgeville, where he truly believes he’s the youngest person in town, Burton says these songs have always been in him — much like Dallas Green (whose band he has played with) brought a poet’s touch to his Alexisonfire punk days.
“Maybe we’re just old men in similar bodies,” he says.
“When I look back on some of the stuff I wrote in the punk band, it was just harder versions of what I’m doing now. So you meet different people along the way, and people you did know before mature and start playing these styles, and all of a sudden you’ve got violins and steel players and gospel singers on your record. It just happens.”
Even while tearing up clubs with Attack in Black, Burton admired serene country singers such as Don Williams, dubbed the ‘Gentle Giant.’
“He has a seven-piece band behind, he goes up on stage, sits on a stool and he doesn’t move a muscle,” says Burton. “He sings these soft, beautiful songs. Looking back on that, I think maybe that’s the direction I’ve always
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meant to be taking.
“Maybe it’s just the way most people go. You look at a lot of people who played in punk bands, and now they’re playing a little more mellow. Maybe it’s just ‘Oh gosh, I’ve had enough … time to slow down a bit.’”
Burton plays Oast House Brewers this Sunday before heading out east for seven shows. It’s a homecoming of sorts, having lived in Welland from 2000 to 2009, where his musical chops were formed.
“I’ve got nothing bad to say about Welland,” he says. “It’s a great community.”
He hasn’t gone completely off the grid since leaving, but pretty close. On his Ridgeville “hobby farm” he has plenty of animals and grows his own food, sometimes trading with neighbours. He hasn’t been to a grocery store in months.
While he’s on the road, his “hard-working family” tends to the farm — wife Baillie and their two young kids. It’s a simpler life that has seeped into his music.
“I’ve always found the peace and serenity of things,” he says. And while the music may sound more sad and forlorn, his writing is actually more “happy and uplifting ” than his younger, louder days. All part of his progression. “There’s growth and death and everything in-between.”
Oast House Brewers, 2017 Niagara Stone Rd., Niagara-on-the-Lake Sunday, 8:30 p.m. $20, includes pint of beer and autographed poster. www.oasthousebrewers.com