Canadian country star Gord Bamford is excited to be back living in Alberta and on the road in support of his eighth album “ Neon Smoke.”
“ I was living in Nashville for the past couple of years. Now I’m moving back. I thought it would be a neat experience for my family to live in Nashville, now we’re building a house by White Buffalo. We’ve been living in an RV,” Bamford said from the middle of a very successful tour which stops by Bully’s Entertainment Centre at the Rocky Mountain Turf Club, Feb. 23 with Aaron Goodvin.
“I’ve been going back and forth from Alberta and Nashville for my whole career, but I missed living in Canada. It”s the best place to raise my family for the next phase of my life,” he said.
In between mo
ving, he has been chipping away at his long awaited eighth album “Neon Smoke.”
I think it’s my best work. I recorded most of it in Calgary rather than Nashville,” he said.
He recorded most of it at MCC Studios in Calgary with engineer John Gasparic and Dave Temple.
“Johnny Gasparic is a really talented engineer. He worked with Mutt Lang,” he said.
“What I liked the most about it was I could take my time and tweak things until I was happy. I’ve recorded in Nashville and they do things really fast. So I’ve worked both ways,” he said.
“I’ve been working hard on this album. I had a hand in all aspects of it from writing, recording and mixing,” he said, adding the songs aren’t necessarily about his personal life, though “That’s What Grandpas Do,” sounds like it is about his grandpa.
“I had a song a couple years ago called ‘Stubborn Blood,” which is about my grandpa. He was stubborn, hard working, tough farmer, who farmed, rode bulls and bucking horses. So ‘What Grandpas Do,’ reminded me of it,” he said.
“I was living in the U.S. A. and missing home, so I decided to write a patriotic song about Canada. They’re very patriotic in the States. I also wanted to work with someone who wasn’t in my genre. And when you think of Canadian icon, you think Jim Cuddy,” Bamford enthused adding he was also excited to work with Tracy Lawrence on ‘The Out Crowd.’
“That was a real pinch yourself moment. I grew up listening to his work, so to get to meet him, let alone work with him was wonderful,” he said.
The album has done really well on the charts and sales-wise.
“People say people aren’t buying records anymore. And with streaming services like Spotify and iTunes it’s hard to tell. But there’s still a market. People are buying this record,” he said.
He released a few singles before releasing the album right before beginning the tour in late January. “Livin’ On Summertime, was released last summer and broke the Top 10. He debuted “Ain’t It Grand” at the CCMA awards on Sept. 10. The title track is also doing well.
“ releasing singles and EPs seems to be the way to go these days, but I didn’t want people feeling ripped off, so I released the full length album,” he said, adding it was released Jan. 25 when he started his tour.
He is excited to play Lethbridge again, but don’t expect to hear a lot of the new album.
“ I’ll play three or four songs from it. As a music listener, I don’t like going to shows where you hear nothing but unfamiliar music. I’ve been fortunate to have had a lot of hits that people really want to hear,” he said, noting his band has been playing with him for anywhere between seven and 10 years.
“ After this tour, we get a week off then we go to Australia and come back in time for the summer festival season and then back to Australia again,” he said adding his three kids don’t usually join him on tour.
“They’re busy with school and hockey now. But they’ll come with me during the summer,” he said.
“ I”m just looking forward to getting back to Lethbridge and seeing everybody again,” he said.
Gord Bamford and Aaron Goodvin play Bullys Entertainment Centre, Feb. 23 beginning at 7 p.m. Doors open at 6 p.m. Tickets are $48.
