Chronicles of the working class
David Francey April 7, 8 p.m. | St. James Hall, 3214 West 10th Ave. Tickets: $30 ($26 members) at roguefolk.bc.ca or 604-736-3022
It was a beautiful day in Lanark, Ont. — west of Ottawa — when David Francey picked up the phone. His Ayrshire burr still evident, the carpenter turned singer-songwriter had built a new album and it was time to talk.
“It was time for it to come out,” he said. “I had the time to do it. It’s more of an observational album than anything else.” It also has a strong connection to the lives of ordinary people.
He thinks that people are returning to thinking about what it means to be in the working class.
“I think a lot of that is coming from Bernie Sanders. There is some sort of groundswell going on and I think people are very fed up with being ruled by the one per cent. I’ve been going at that for a while.”
He is pleased with the Canadian election result, but says he’s stopped watching the U.S. election. “It is just horrifying. I love the country, I think it’s one of the great forces in the world but I fear for them if that’s the best they can throw up there right now.”
That allows a return to the music and the road. His first stop was to be Kansas City at the Folk Alliance convention. And then it’s off to various ports of call in Canada. In all, it’s a 50-date ramble. But that isn’t all he will do this year. There are more dates in Ireland down the road and in the U.S. Midwest.
“That’s what I do. When you stop having anything to say, you should just hang them up. Writing well, observing things that are true and should be told and might even stand the test of time, as folk music is supposed to do. You are supposed to chronicle your times. That’s what I hope I’m doing.”
Francey was prompted to write by his late father, who was a huge Robert Burns fan. “He was a working guy. He worked in a factory and all that and he loved Burns. He liked the message. He liked the fact that Burns raised the common man up to something to be admired and looked at and thought about.”
The new album is called Empty Train. If there is a cornerstone song on it, he says, it’s the one called Fool.
“If I didn’t have such an ego I’d call the album Fool, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I’m square in the crosshairs of that song. But I’m not alone there. You get up and wonder ‘Why’d I do that?’ You’re not listening to your brain and your heart is throwing you down a rabbit hole.”