Exclusive AUK Mini-Gig: Bob Sumner

artwork for Bob Sumner minigig
photo: Tianna Franks

“Some Place to Rest Easy” is the title of the second solo album released by Bob Sumner since he and his brother Brian came to an agreement that hoofing it down different musical pathways would be their best way forward for a while at least. The album came out in September of 2024 around the time he had his debut at the AMERICANAFEST showcase in Nashville. Ahead of the show, everything seemed like it’d been culminating for that very night and by all reports, it was a smashing success as his band ripped through songs from both albums to a restless, oversold crowd eager to hear what this country singer from British Columbia was bringing to the table.

Sumner has a pretty routine backstory, growing up in White Rock, a tiny suburban, border beach town just over the U.S.-Canada border 45 minutes from Vancouver. His paternal grandfather was a working jazz guitarist, squeezing in gigs alongside his day job as a janitor. And Sumner’s mother grew up in a religious community, playing gospel music and church tunes by ear on the piano. But it was Sumner’s brother, with whom he played as the Sumner Brothers for more than two decades, who may have been his biggest influence. “My brother was obsessed with pushing boundaries,” he says, citing the duo’s eclectic musical catalogue as a masterclass in experimentation.

You could easily describe Sumner as nonchalant, but his artistic fervour is anything but that. During the months following its release, the buzz on Sumner’s album (and “Wasted Love Songs” as well) went from a few folks spreading the word to a whole lot more hootin’ and hollerin’ about its tartness and vigour. Listening to his songs, you felt their juxtapositions – how the primary topic of several was eternal but not sentimental; a punch in the gut but from a fist clenched out of love.

Sumner has had fateful encounters with death that changed his life as two friends died of complications brought about by drink. He treats these tragedies as delicate as the country ballads that ached out of my best friend’s stereo throughout school years. There is an affection in these songs that my cells surely recognised. And perhaps that is because the stories he tells are ones that others have lived through, sound-tracked by a scope that mirrors the beck-and-call of so many small towns.

In the exclusive video, shot at The Wisehall in Vancouver, Sumner is joined by longtime friend and writing partner Etienne Tremblay on lead acoustic guitar and Trent Freeman on fiddle. Sumner is playing a 1985 Martin D21 LE, and it comes with a story to tell. “It was a lucky find,” Sumner said. “These things are pretty tough to find up here, and this one had just gone up on the wall at a local music store. My friend Elliot Way walked out of the acoustic room and said, ‘Bob, I just found your guitar.’ He was right. I picked it up, played it for all of 30 seconds and knew I had to find a way to buy it then and there.”

The trio play a concise but loose 12-minute set with three of Sumner’s compositions – two from the latest album and one that is not on record yet. We’ll step back while he imparts what you’re about to hear.

  1. Turn You into Stone’I rid me of your letters but your words I never will. I tore up all your pictures but your sad eyes haunt me still. Oh, my heart, if I could turn you into stone I would.” Sometimes the pain of a lost love feels insurmountable. Better to turn one’s heart to stone. Memories feel like an albatross. Better to erase them. Recalls “The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.”
  2. ‘Baby I Know’ – It should be so simple. Love one another. Respect one another. Be kind. “And all that you asked for was somebody to carry you home, Someone to give you some shelter from the storm, Some place to rest easy, some way to hold on”. But life gets in the way. We work hard. We are tired. Sometimes we drink too much. Words said in anger. Love can be so tough. Yet so often in the face of hardship, for better or for worse, we hold on to hope. “When the river runs dry when there’s no leaves left to fall, Baby I know at the end of it all, Our love, oh our love will take wings and fly.” 
  3. “Tonight” – A dancing song. A drinking song. A going out song. A friend doing what he or she can to help a friend out in a low spot. “Well tonight forget about her, forget about your past and the pain that it brings, we’re going out on this town tonight, put on your dancing shoes.”

Bob Sumner is signed to Fluff & Gravy Records (World) and North Country Collective (Canada). His website is where to look for his music.

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