In late 2019, Del Barber was poised to capitalise on some major recognition of his work. He’d just been nominated for ‘Roots Artist of the Year’ at the Western Canadian Music Awards, as well as SOCAN Songwriter of the Year. His latest album, ‘Easy Keeper’, had earned a Juno Award nomination for Contemporary Roots Album of the Year. He had a long string of live dates lined up… then the shitstorm hit us all.
Isolated on his small farm in rural Manitoba, Berber began a period of re-evaluation and, in particular, reassessing his own creative process. As the pandemic swept across the world, he set out to write a new collection of songs, and each morning would go into his shed-come-studio looking for inspiration to kick in. However, it didn’t really work out like that. Instead, Barber found himself looking back into old notebooks and going through his hard drive for past demos. That’s when he rediscovered. ‘Just a Little Heat.’
“My dad and I wrote this one. It was his initial idea, and we both lost track of it for a few years. When I found it again I couldn’t believe it. It was like finding treasure at the bottom of a deep lake. This song is written from the perspective of an old truck. Once the pinnacle of usefulness and efficiency, it’s becoming increasingly obsolete, but the desire to work and love remains stronger and more keenly felt than ever before.”
With its use of an old truck as a metaphor for ageing, the song has an inspiring message, that a person’s desire to keep working for the benefit of those they love never fades.
The promo is a live performance of the song, shot in a big shed, with a canoe in the background, and the band playing in front of a foxy looking vintage Airstream trailer… how cool is that! Barber takes the lead, with two beautifully played guitars, three other fine voices in support, and a beautiful song. If that doesn’t grab you, what are you doing with your life. What are you doing here? Watch this. It’s ace.
