Spencer Burton found himself feeling out of sorts in a post-pandemic world.
“All of this chaos over the last few years really had me feeling like, I don't know, music was was getting more and more difficult,” the Pelham musician said. “I guess it was hard to write about things, and hard to put my emotions to music when everything just felt chaotic. Big changes, like the ones we all went through, aren't something that we just get over.”
So he and his family headed to Northern Ontario, to what Burton described as “a beautiful little cabin in the woods,” in search of even more peace and quiet than could be found on the family’ hobby farm in Ridgeville.
The trip turned out to be just what Burton needed. Between fishing trips and working on fixing up the cabin, he found himself inspired to write new music.
“I found myself writing songs about that experience, just nature and being out there and, and finding peace in significantly simpler things than I was used to,” Burton said.
The result of these sessions is North Wind, Burton’s first album since 2021’s Coyote. And as with his previous effort, Burton headed south to Nashville to lay down the tracks for the album with producer Andrija Tokic, whom he referred to as one of his favourite people to work with.
Burton will be playing some of those songs on Nov. 16, when he performs at the Old Pelham Town Hall as a part of the Pelham Concert Series, at 8 p.m. Given he doesn’t reside all that far from the venue, it truly is a hometown show.
And he is thrilled at the prospect.
“There's not a lot of stuff like this small hall, intimate concert thing going on down here, especially in the smaller towns and the smaller communities,” Burton said. “I think it's such a treat for people in areas like Pelham, who might not be informed about concerts or might not want to travel to St. Catharines or Toronto to go see a band play.”
As for the show, Burton will take to the stage alone with only his acoustic guitar.
“I kind of wanted to give people a chance to hear the songs as they were written,” he said. “There’s going to be a lot of storytelling. There’s going to be a lot of interactive fun. I'm going to be singing the songs and kind of telling little stories about how they were written and why they were written.”
North Wind is available on vinyl at most record stores and digitally via bandcamp, Spotify and Apple Music.
Tickets for the show are $39.99 and are available online at tixr.com. More information about Spencer Burton can be found at spencerburtonmusic.com
