More Improvising
It is interesting to see that my last post on this website was to do with a major project I took on last year to bring improvised music to Kings County, NS. It went really well! In spite of the pandemic. The challenges of first and second and third waves added to the spirit of improvisation and thinking on our feet and adapting. A lot of good things came out of it. Including a band called Quilting.
This group is a major focus, now. We’ll be releasing our first album soon, and we’re playing regularly at our old-church-clubhouse in Canning and other places too.
My other major focus is Music In Communities. This is an artist-driven non-profit cooperative with a growing team of musicians devoted to bringing music to all the niches of our community. We won an award! Community Presenter of the Year, from the Nova Scotia Music Awards. We have worked hard this year through the crazy logistics of the pandemic, and safely hosted a lot of shows and programming. Because so much of my energy is there now, I’m going to let this website go somewhat dormant for a while, and redirect you to www.musicincommunities.com for most of what I’m up to. Quilting hasn’t got a website yet but I post about us on facebook and instagram.
Improvising
I am so very pleased to announce that I received a grant from Canada Council for the Arts to support a run of shows and improvising sessions this winter. Through the Music In Communities Co-op, we’ll host a small, safe show every two weeks at the Al Whittle Theatre featuring some fantastic open-spirited and creative musicians from our area and other parts of the Atlantic Bubble. We will also be collaborating with various groups to host music workshops and improvising sessions for kids, youth at risk, differently-abled folks, and other members of our community.
I am so excited to get to work on this! Especially now. The pandemic has made it harder for people to play music together, and more than ever, we need to get better at improvising our way to a workable future. These music events help expand our thinking, put joy back into our days, and bring our community together in small but important ways. We’ll follow or excede all Covid guidelines and keep things as safe as possible, while we make things happen.
Wrapping Up
Well what a strange morning, and abrupt end to summer, with the kids getting back on the bus for the first time in six months! We made the most of the summer that's for sure, and really fell in love with our Atlantic Bubble. Organizing The Canning Kitchen Party kept me busy, and was a sweet thread through the warm weeks. Thanks to the musicians who brought their A-game to the stage/tent/gazebo/tunnel even after a long hiatus from performing. Your music brings people together and expands horizons, even when we stay close to home. There’s a youtube channel with highlights, which I will be visiting in the winter, I know. Here’s a sample that I’m fond of - the Mark Riley Project gave folks a chance to do some social-distanced dancing in a summer when the festivals they would have danced at were cancelled. Stand By Me I hope these memories can help keep our spirits charged up to get through what might be a hard winter. Thanks to the people who showed up many times over the summer to enjoy what was on offer. Thanks to the sponsors and great local businesses who support us:
Canning Kitchen Party 2020
The Canning Kitchen Party is finding creative ways to safely bring live music to our town!
Music In Communities Co-op is excited to host outdoor concerts around Canning and area while the weather is good.
We encourage folks to bring an instrument or a song to sing and we'll have a jam after the shows - it's been a strange time so let's play music together in person while we can.
Some of these shows will have tickets for sale in advance but many are in public spaces and we hope that you will contribute to the tip jar, suggested donation $10 or pay what you can.
Times and locations will vary, and the line-up of musicians is still unfolding, so check back for details, or
contact kimbarlow77@gmail.com
Physical distancing is required except within your ten-person bubbles, hand sanitizer will be available for use, and masks are encouraged. Music In Communities will follow all protocols to make sure we stay safe and Covid-free.
Some of the venues will have shelters in case of rain but if the weather is really bad, the show will be cancelled or possibly moved to a different day later in the week. Dress for the weather - an umbrella can double as a parasol. Bring a a blanket or folding chair, bug spray, sunscreen, whatever you need to help nature be your friend!
Spring 2020
Coronavirus came to Canada partway through my epic tour with Rae Spoon and Mohammad Sahraei. Playing music with Mohammad and Rae was a challenging, beautiful meeting of sounds and perspectives. We played shows in Yukon and Alberta, but had to bail on Ontario/QC as we swiftly realized we’d better get home and hunker down. We rushed through airports and got back to our families just as venues began closing and lockdowns were implemented. I am grateful for that time on the road. I had not toured much in the past few years, and may not again.
I am making community-building plans now, imagining the ability to implement some time. These weird days, I’m trying to home-school my kids and help some of my music students, and I’m thinking about improvised music. Everything is changing, and we need to be as adaptable and inventive as can be, to make our way in unfamiliar territory. Ironically, all I can bring myself to play right now are three-hundred-year-old classical guitar compositions that I have played since childhood, and fiddle-banjo tunes that come from just as far back. This old music keeps me grounded and helps me focus. Bach was a great improvisor. Imagination is essential work. When we can gather, I will be organizing some improvising sessions and you are welcome to come play.
March Tour 2020
I’m about to do a tour. A big tour! First big tour since b4 these bebbies. First gig of the big tour: Yukon Arts Centre. Whitehorse. Lots of reflection going on, looking at these milestones. I remember now, that Nova Scotians are shamelessly sentimental folks. I embrace this full-on now that I’m back here. All my Yukon peeps and beautiful places, I miss you so hard sometimes it hurts to think about you but I’m coming for a visit! Looking forward to having a good laugh-and-cry with you.
It’s been six years since we moved away. Spent most of my adult life in YT. Being back in NS has been weird time-travel (the radio stations are still playing the same songs as when I was in highschool) and getting established in an essentially new/changed place, new connections and collaborations. All while parenting small twins, which has kept the pace slow but steady - time is a more valued commodity now, keeps me focused, and informs the direction of my interests and inspirations.
It has been a surprise to come back to NS and discover a lot more cultural diversity than when I was a kid. An Iranian community in Halifax, for example! I had explored world folk traditions in university, and this new collab with Mohammad Sahraei is a return to some lost threads from way back. Now I’m bringing a lifetime of varied musical influences together in strange and beautiful ways, and excited to bring it to YAC on March 5. Mohammad and I, exchanging trad tunes on setar and banjo, threaded between original songs, guitar, synth, beats. Mohammad is a virtuoso and scholar, and great to improvise with - open, gracious and funny. He and his family came to NS around the same time I moved back, and he started the Open Borders Ensemble with about thirty musicians, playing all over the province. I’m really excited for him to discover northern Canada, and can’t wait for you to hear him.
Winter Projects
Summer was busy and rewarding. I did not anticipate such success, running the Canning Kitchen Party! We had full houses at most of the shows, some sweet jam sessions afterwards, and a lot of great music came through our little town. Big fat thanks to the sponsors and musicians. Let’s do that again.
Now I’ve hit the ground running with fall, back to school, and new projects to juggle. I’m running two ukulele groups; one in Wolfville on Monday evenings, and a big one in Woodville on Wednesday mornings with THIRTY-FIVE ukuleles and guitars. It is awesome. Message me if you’re interested in joining Monday’s group, or signing up for private lessons. I’m also looking at starting a uke group for kids so stay tuned for that.
Other irons in the fire:
How To Let Go was nominated for Folk Recording of the Year by the Nova Scotia Music Awards! I’ll be showcasing at Nova Scotia Music Week in Truro on November 9. I’m trying out a new collaboration, with Persian instrumentalist Mohammad Sahraei. Mohammad and I both studied ethnomusicology, on opposite sides of the world. We both love some persnickety gut and skin stringed instruments, and modal folk songs. Some of these instruments and the tunes that are played on them have travelled around the globe in very long and indirect paths, and we are finding the relationships that bring them back together with the tar, setar, dotar, guitar, and banjo. Meagan Osburn is one of the sweet voices of the Dearlies, and also a founder and former owner of the Union Street Cafe, one of the best venues for live music in Nova Scotia. She will be my wing-man for the conference and I am very glad to have her voice on my songs! I am really excited to put these sounds together for you!
Kitchen Party!
We are thrilled to announce a music series that will happen every Saturday all summer in various locations in our beautiful village!
We have a full line-up of wildly talented musicians booked through the summer and we can’t wait to share this great music with you. Shows will start with a revolving house band featuring Kim Barlow and members of the Dearlies, Ida Red, and Acadia faculty Mark Adam and Nic D’Amato. We will play a set of traditional Maritime music reinterpreted, fun singalongs and familiar anthems. The guests will play a set, and then we’ll have a jam session, open to all.
This is a Kitchen Party to celebrate the rich musical traditions found in the Maritimes and all the good things Canning has to offer. There are so many!
Huge thanks to Alice Hartling and Mike Gill at The Village Coffeehouse for providing their beautiful space to launch this series. We're now a roving Kitchen Party and will be popping up in different locations around Canning - stay tuned as details unfold.
Tickets are $10 and kids are free. If you book tickets online, send us a message to reserve seats for your kids.
The Summer Line-Up (Consult the facebook page for more info) :
Coax Records
Announcing: Coax Records is releasing my record, How To Let Go! Rae Spoon, who runs this label, is a pretty awesome and inspiring person and I thank them deeply for hearing value in what I am doing, and helping me to put music out in the world in a wider way. Rae and I are planning to do a tour together in the spring, too! I can’t believe it! I can’t wait!! I am honoured to be on Coax Records, with a bunch of musicians I love and admire, and others I am excited to get to know. Wax Mannequin, Bird City, Geoff Berner, Leaf Rapids, Jim Bryson and so much more. WOW!!! It has been a bit weird putting myself out there again after focusing on domestic life for a bunch of years, settling in to a new community in Nova Scotia and all that has entailed. It is known to be challenging for women to get back in the workplace after parental leave, and especially so for a not-so-young-anymore woman in the music industry. I have so many ideas these days, and better ways to express them - just hitting my stride! Really glad to be making more music with creative inspiring people, bending ears and minds and making good things for you all. xoxo
Working Musician For Hire
Just back from an amazing two week tour of NS/NB Que/Ontario. It was fun! Not exhausting! My tour-mate Wax Mannequin was a real pro and very inspiring. I remember now - I love music, and am very ready to be back in the working-musician world. I took a partial parental leave for the past few years but now I’m booking shows, and hanging out my shingle as a session musician on clawhammer banjo, electric and acoustic guitar and vocals. I also have chops at composing and arranging for film, theatre, live performance, and more. Call me! I’m your woman.
Lots of shows coming up with the Dearlies; a great bunch of gals and I love playing banjo with them. It’s just a bonus to hear their gorgeous harmony singing at every rehearsal.
I’ll be performing all over with my trio this summer - stay tuned for dates and places. Mark Adam is on percussion and keys and Nic D’Amato on bass. These two are heavy, and I’m thrilled to be working with them. We’re working up a collection of beautiful, interesting arrangements of traditional Maritime songs mixed with my originals and other trad music for banjo and guitar. Exploring this musical history has been really rewarding and I’m excited to do more! Contact me if you’re interested in hiring us for an event or you know of the perfect venue near you.
Justin Haynes
This has been a hell of a rough spring so far. So many deaths, suffering, sorrows. I'm feeling strong and clear, so if you need to lean, I'm here. Here are some words I wrote for my friend Justin who was a big part of my life, who died last week.
Justin Haynes came to the Yukon to perform in the Longest Night Ensemble in 2003, hired by director Daniel Janke, and that began our turbulent friendship and many years of recording and touring together. He is the guitarist on my 3rd record, “luckyburden”, which was released on Caribou Records in 2004. He played on my records: Wilderness Tips, Saplings, Camden and one track on How To Let Go. We toured in Australia, and across Canada many times. Lots of good, bad and weird gigs. Many stories!
I just got home from my first tour in seven years. I got the news of Justin's passing halfway through the tour. This past week, doing shows and revisiting some of the songs I wrote for Justin, I notice how many of them are like little prayers I made to help keep him afloat. His survival was always a question mark. And yet, so shocking when he died. Hope is weird.
Press Release
WAX MANNEQUIN & KIM BARLOW ON TOUR MARCH 2019
Wax Mannequin and Kim Barlow are hitting stages in eastern Canada, from Chester NS to Hamilton ON and points between. These are two indie heroes with many albums and tours to their names. Both released striking new records this year. Have a New Name (WM) is a captivating collection of surreal folk and experimental pop songs. How To Let Go (KB) contains folk-pop grandeur about domestic minutiae, electronic egressions, and a wild slant on traditional Maritime tunes.
Wax Mannequin is known - and cultishly followed - for his weird, folk-punk anthems and his live performances full of fraught beauty. His songs are dark and thoughtful at times, pounding and ridiculous at others…or all of these things at once. Songsmith, performance-art provocateur and self-sabotologist, Wax Mannequin continues indefinitely to carve a deep, indelible groove across the face of the modern music underground.
Kim Barlow is an accomplished guitarist and clawhammer banjoist whose songwriting tends to be sweetly off-kilter. She was a CBC darling in the early aughts and struck a tenuous balance between her exploratory tendencies and her folky inclinations. She stopped playing solo for several years to tour with other bands, including a wry banjo-ukulele duo with Mathias Kom of the Burning Hell, and to raise a (second) batch of children - twins, now age five. She is reemerging, work-hardened, bossy and musically braver.
Winter Tour '19
Here it comes - a bunch of shows! I am really excited to hit some stages in the Maritimes, Quebec and Ontario in the next couple of months, with some great musicians. February, a few shows with John Guliak and Robyn Carrigan, and then further afield with Wax Mannequin. Eek!! Details will be posted to the right as they get fleshed out. Fingers crossed the weather cooperates and we get to all the gigs!
How To Let Go
Here’s the premiere of the single “Whitehorse" from the new record: liveinlimbo.com
Here’s where you can buy/listen to the whole collection of songs:
https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/kimbarlow12
About the album:
Some of the East Coast’s best jazz, folk and pop musicians play on this record. Mark Adam on drums, keys and vocals, Nicholas D’Amato on bass, Joel Leblanc on electric guitar, Heather Kelday & Chris Luedecke on vocals, and Toronto guitarist Justin Haynes.
The distinctive and charming voice of Old Man Luedecke is featured on Daily A-Growing and he sang backups on Not My Little Baby and String Bean.
Producer & engineer Mark Adam has a new studio in the Gaspereau, NS. Without Mark's vision and enthusiasm as a producer, I might not have made a new record at all! We had a lot of fun building some wild sounds in the straw-bale barn studio.
Marcus Paquin in Montreal mixed the album. He has mixed The Barr Brothers, the National, Hey Rosetta!, Little Scream, Timbre Timber, Arcade Fire, etc. etc. He brought great ideas and energy to the material and made bold, creative mixes. It was mastered at the amazing Archive Mastering Studio, NS.
Deep Roots
The Deep Roots Music Festival is coming up soon. I really can’t wait! My new album is going to launch from their warm embrace like a kid starting their first day of school. Thanks, Deep Roots, for supporting me since I moved to the Valley. I have felt very welcomed and included in the scene here, in large part because of the festival and the enthusiasm of its organizers. I’ll be closing off the weekend with my whole band, showing off big fun versions of the songs we recorded at Mark Adam’s studio in Gaspereau. Very honoured to have these great musicians in my band: Mark Adam on drums, Nic D’Amato on bass, Nick Maclean on guitar and Heather Kelday singing with me. We’ll be leading the finale, too, with an adventurous interpretation of a tradtional song from the Helen Creighton collections.
For the full schedule and festival info visit:
Helen Creighton
When I moved to the Yukon, my mother started sending me books, for Christmas or a birthday, with inscriptions like “Come home soon.” The books are collections of Maritime folk songs, transcribed from field recordings by Helen Creighton. This lady travelled all over the region from the 1920s to the late ‘60s, collecting songs and folklore from sea captains, sailors, local people who shared their songs and stories. I never did much with these books while I was up north, but now that I’m back in NS, I have pulled them out of their boxes. As musicologist Kenneth Peacock says in the introduction to one from 1961, “The oldest songs are the fewest, and usually the best.” With the newer songs, he says in a delightfully snobbish academic way, “The time span has not been sufficiently long to allow the inferior songs to sink into oblivion.” The simple folk melody “must be good enough to withstand constant repetition and at the same time offer ample scope for expressive ornamentation.” If you’ve ever gone to an old-time jam you know about endless repetition! The “crooked” tunes are good because they keep you on your toes by not following a standard four-bar phrase, but they can also be jam-wreckers. The strongest melodies come from modal music, which can be traced back to ancient melody-based music - Gregorian chant and beyond. That’s what originally drew me to the banjo and old-time music of the American south, along with the groove and earthiness of the sounds. Maritime music also relies heavily on the modes, and shares many of the same songs of French, English, Scottish and Irish origin.
New Album Soon
The new album is drawing near it’s completion. (Maybe you can help me come up with a name for it?) Producer Mark Adam and I have been plugging away at tracks over in the Gaspereau whenever we can get away from other family and work duties. It’s been a long, drawn-out process, this one, but it’s starting to sound like a cohesive body of work. I’m excited about it! This is the first time I’ve recorded a collection of my own, new songs since 2011 when I made Saplings, which was a bit of a secret album. I’ve been focused on other bands; Annie Lou and Spring Breakup, and then Ida Red and raising baby twin humans. The babies are not babies now. They start school in September. Ostensibly I will have more time to write and play music and promote this new album. The wonderful Katy Hopkins - aka Analog Songs - has been filming some of the recording sessions and live shows, so we’ll have some video footage up for you to look at and listen, soon. Keep an eye to the right for shows. I hope there will be more of those this year. Come hear some live music - I’ll do my best to make you glad you left your comfy house. My band, fyi, is awesome - Mark Adam on drums and Nicholas D’Amato on bass. Heather Kelday on backup vocals, and even Old Man Luedecke on some songs! We’ll be launching the new album officially, at the Deep Roots Festival in Wolfville in September. It’s a great little festival, and I’m honoured to have their support and encouragement. Hope to see you there or somewhere, soon! k
Camden is Here.
Here is a link to the new record I made with guitarist Justin Haynes one day last month at Don Kerr's studio in Toronto. There was some magic, and we played the heck outta these tunes. I hope you give it a listen and it makes your day a little brighter:
https://kimbarlow.bandcamp.com/album/camden
I'm also very pleased to announce I have received support from the Canada Council for the Arts, to make another record! This will be a larger operation with a full band on many tracks, produced by Mark Adam at his studio in the Gaspereau and will be released in the fall.
So. Here's one for headphones and introspective listening, and stay tuned for something more raucous and fun for dancing in the kitchen, featuring a bunch of new songs about domestic minutiae and our worldly plight!
Camden
I made a thing, and I think it’s beautiful. Recorded in one day in Don Kerr’s studio, with Justin Haynes. Together in a room, two or three takes per song. These are some songs Justin and I have written over the years, and some traditional tunes. It sounds funny and sad and real, like our complicated selves. There is so much music, and I often wonder what’s the point, but I made some I can get behind, so am going to give it a push out into the world. It’s up on Bandcamp now. Here’s a link: https://kimbarlow.bandcamp.com/album/camden
Coming up!
Ida Red is cooking up more fun times at Lloyd Hall. This time we’re teaming up with the Dearlies to host a family-friendly, foot-stompin’, winter-banishing dance party on Sunday, March 4 from 11am - 2pm. Jenny Osburn is author of the Kitchen Party Cookbook, and she and her sister Meagan, former owners of the Union Street Cafe, sing harmonies the way only sisters can, in the Dearlies. Jenny is making a delicious brunch menu, and the bands will provide great tunes to get you dancing in the daytime!
