‘A huge gamble’
Juno award-winning musician highlighting his painting, songwriting skills in Annapolis Valley to kick off national tour
Singer/songwriter David Francey is on his way to the Annapolis Valley, and although the award-winning musician is giving his voice a break, he still has art to show off.
Francey lost his voice in June 2017 after a long tour period, so he’s giving his singing voice some time to recover.
In the meantime, he’s focusing on one of his other passions: painting.
“I couldn’t sing or perform for a while, so I decided to just throw myself into painting,” he said. “And I ended up accumulating a pretty big pile of them.”
Francey’s friend Tony Girardin came up with an art tour concept, and pretty soon, they were off to the races on a national circuit.
“It’s going to be fun to take this to places where I know a lot of people and have had great fun musically,” he said. “Hopefully, it’ll transfer into the art world as well.”
But Francey’s music will still be incorporated into the events, with his latest album, The Broken Heart of Everything, available for sale and songwriting workshops set up at certain venues.
“Since I can’t tour the album musically, which is heartbreaking to tell you the truth, the only way to get it out to people and chat about it is to do this show along with the paintings,” he said. “It’s a hard thing for a singer-songwriter not to be able to perform it.”
He admits he’s a little nervous about this tour — as it’s something that’s brand new for him.
“It’s a huge gamble of course, but it’s also some new territory, I can’t think of anyone else who’s done this,” he said.
Songwriting roots
The Scottish-born artist moved to Canada at the ripe age of 13, settling in Toronto, but has since moved to the small community of Elphin, Ontario, population 38, which he describes as a dot on the map.
He became a singer-songwriter after 20 years in the construction industry.
“I wrote a lot of songs when I was working in construction and I wrote them for myself and no one else and had no intention of doing a thing with them,” Francey said. “Then I married a brilliant woman who told me she liked the songs a lot and she told me I should give it a shot, and I started making records, serendipitously.”
“I was successful with them and ended up winning a few Junos with them, among other awards,” he said. “It became obvious that instead of hammering I should be writing songs.”
Francey won Juno awards in 2002, 2004 and 2008, each time for Best Roots & Traditional Album — Solo.
Writing and painting links
Francey said there are strong parallels between songwriting and painting, which has allowed him to focus on both art forms.
“I 100 per cent believe that we draw from the same well for both of those arts,” he said. “I say that because I’m well-familiar with finishing a song, and how long it takes, all of the machinations it goes through until it’s finally done. But, when it is finally done, you have that sense of completion and of having done something. It’s the same feeling you get when you finish a painting. Instead of moving words around, you’re moving images around.”
He’s inspired by the same things in both his songs and his paintings.
“I’ve written about people I’ve Scotia many times during his career, saying folk fans from the province have been supportive of his music from the beginning and he’s happy to start off the national tour here.
Francey credits the upcoming shows in Windsor, Summerville and Wolfville to his friendship with Terra Spencer, who is helping to facilitate and promote the events.
Spencer said she’s thrilled to be working with one of her songwriting heroes.
“I think the significance of this event is David’s experience in having to change gears, from being an internationally-recognized musician and performer to putting his visual art at the forefront, on account of his struggle with his voice,” Spencer said. “A difficult transition, but hopefully one with a silver lining.”
Spencer is co-hosting the songwriting workshop on April 20 in Windsor.