Tunes you can dance to

Like so many country musicians before him, local troubadour Sean Burns just can’t wait to get on the road again, playing to listeners far and wide.

But for now, hot off 10 dates out west, Burns and his band Lost Country will celebrate the official release of the group’s latest record, Better Off in Time & Other Songs for the Dance Floor, with a gig at Sidestage Friday.

“I like to work with the band as much as I can,” Burns says. “There aren’t many bands that play the kind of country music we play. It’s the most rewarding gig.”

Burns, who sings and plays upright bass, tic-tac and acoustic guitars on the new record, laid down the tracks last October at Winnipeg’s No Fun Club, mostly live off the floor with Lost Country.

The band — a murderer’s row of local talent — includes regulars Dan Russell on steel guitar, Chris Dunn on lead guitar, and Joanna Miller on drums, along with contributions from Jeremy Penner and Blaine Badiuk on fiddles and Austin Parachoniak contributing background vocals.

Bringing a particular Texan flavour to the mix is veteran piano player Floyd Domino, who has played with the likes of Asleep at the Wheel and Merle Haggard, among many others, contributing his tracks from a studio in his home state of Texas.

“I could have gone to Texas and hired the best guys who do that every day, but this is our North of Dallas sound,” Burns says of his choice to record at home with his trusty band behind him.

“A lot of my favourite country singers over the years have had theme records. This one, we tried to be a bit more mature and reserved than some of the other records, which are more hardcore honky-tonk barroom albums. I was trying to capture that Texas dancehall sound. It was something I wanted to try to do.”

Indeed, Better Off in Time is the latest thematic long player that Burns has released. Both released in 2020, We Gotta Lotta Truckin’ To Do is a collection of 13 truck-driving songs, while A Bakersfield Half-Dozen tips its hat to seven classic examples of the Bakersfield sound popularized by Buck Owens and Merle Haggard, among others.

Perhaps the best example of Burns’s dedication to both preserving and contributing to the Canadian country music tradition is 2023’s Lost Country, which not only shines a light on 10 “lost” Canadian country cuts, but also features performances from nearly forgotten local legends and regional stars.

The son of professional country musicians, Burns, 42, has been gigging professionally since he was 17. Recently, he’s been playing bass full-time with Corb Lund & the Hurtin’ Albertans (alongside fellow Manitoban Grant Siemens, Lund’s longtime guitar player), logging thousands of miles of lonesome highway in the process.

Between life on the road and a young family at home — not to mention recording his weekly episode of Boots & Saddle for campus/community radio station CKUW 95.9 FM — Burns admits that finding time to work on his own songs can be challenging.

“I’m not as dedicated with the writing as I’d like to be. I have a lot of notes in the phone, a document on the computer that I keep. A lot of ideas. A lot of melody lines in my phone. Sometimes it’s crap, but sometimes there’s something there. Then I have to sit down and really think about how to construct it, what it’s going to say or mean,” he says.

Lethbridge, Alta.’s Skinny Dyck produced the new record with Burns and recording engineer Scott Franchuk, who also mixed the record at his home studio in Edmonton.

“It was trying and challenging and stressful at times, but it was still the most fun I’ve ever had doing something,” Burns says of the recording process. “Skinny helped establish the vibe. It’s controlled, but still the four or five us in a room playing music together.”

A number of the cuts (Glory for Me, Second Time Around and the lead single Tables & Chairs) are also co-writes with Dyck going back to 2018 and 2019, when Burns and Dyck toured both the big cities and backwaters of Western Canada together.

“At the time I thought they were done, but they weren’t. They needed some time and maturity. I wanted to write more songs in that some mould that were already kicking around. It was easy to put those together. It helped with the band, they had a lot of input in where they went. I just tried to write a cohesive album,” Burns says.

A prolific songwriter and performer in his own right, Dyck will also perform at Sidestage, along with up and coming local singer-songwriter Erika Fowler.

“I’m a big fan of hers,” Burns says, noting Fowler joined the band on its Western tour, opening the shows and working the merch table along the way.

“A beautiful singer, reminds me of a ’70s Emmylou Harris kind of thing, with real nice songs.”

And while the local album release marks the end of this run for Lost Country, Burns will be gassing up the van and heading back out West for another 11 solo dates.

“The solo tour is just me grinding hard, just trying to recoup,” he says. “I’m excited to go on the road next week and actually do the thing, play the songs.”

Sheldon.Birnie@winnipegfreepress.com