Check out this live recording of ‘Too Late’ from Canadian singer-songwriter Ben Arsenault. This performance is enhanced by fabulous fiddle flourishes from Aiden Ayers, whose sweeping and rhythmic notes dance around Arsenault’s distinctive voice. His vocal is smooth with an edge of vulnerability as he weaves through an inventive and immediately engaging melody. He sings of heartache with resignation: “It’s too late now, it was too late then, it’s too late, it’s always been.” Arsenault’s songs resonate as he deals with the stuff of life – loss and pain, heartbreak and unfulfilled dreams.
For this live performance, Arsenault plays in an old barn while wearing his grandfather’s cowboy hat. In this setting, and stripped back to just guitar and fiddle, the music is absolutely timeless.
‘Too Late’ is from Arsenault’s brand new album, ‘Make Way For This Heartache’, which is out now. The Vancouver-based singer-songwriter’s sophomore album comes via the North Country Collective, a promotional collective and record label formed by artists Elliot C Way, Johnny 99 and Bob Sumner to celebrate the roots music of Vancouver. The album is a mixture of new writing and re-recordings and new versions of older songs. Arsenault says: “These are all songs that I love to sing, and many of them I have been singing and performing for years. They’re songs that have stood the test of time. Songs that have become less about the experiences in my life that inspired them, and more about life itself.” On the record, the sound is filled out with a talented group, including Caleb Melo (Jesse Daniel) and Scott Smith (Barney Bentall, Aaron Pritchett) on pedal steel and Leon Power (Juno Award-winning Frazey Ford) on drums. This is what country music should sound like. Enjoy.
