Alberta roots musician John Wort Hannam has set out on his first tour in two years, and a stop is scheduled for Airdrie’s Bert Church LIVE Theatre (BCLT) on March 19.
“There’s lots of feels. We’re excited and part of me wonders if I still remember how to do this,” Wort Hannam said. “We’re looking forward to playing.”
The artist has played in front of several audiences throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, but it was never more than one show in a row.
He feels he and his fellow musicians are climbing back into the saddle, although he acknowledged that proverbial seat feels a little different than it did before.
“It is only four dates in a row but for some reason, it feels different and it feels important and it’s just because we haven’t been playing for so long on a regular basis,” he said.
Wort Hannam began his music career in 2001 and has since received a JUNO Award nomination and a Canadian Folk Music Award for Best Album of the Year.
He will be making his stop at BCLT in Airdrie with a four-piece band in tow. The band’s instruments will include an upright bass, drums, keys, and guitar.
The tunes they’ll be performing are all original lyrically driven tempo roots music, according to Wort Hannam. He said while his music isn’t totally folk nor country, he’s been told it sounds like the prairies.
“I feel like it’s western Canadian music,” he said.
Wort Hannam put out his most recent album titled, “Long Haul,” in 2021, written during the pandemic.
It was a much different process than Wort Hannam’s previous recording sessions, as the musicians contributing to the album were all in separate locations.
“Usually when I’m making a record it would be like what people imagine – we go to a studio and we run through songs and sit around in a room in a circle all mic’d up,” he said. “But this one was everybody in their own space. I was in Lethbridge and the drummer was in Toronto and the bass player was in Vancouver and a couple others were in Tennessee.”
He recorded his part of the songs in a small windowless studio about a block away from his house. The other musicians tracked their songs to a drum loop in order to circumvent the delay caused by the internet.
Wort Hannam admitted it was a little bit lonely compared to the usual music-making process.
“I think the joy in making a record is not just the actual creating part, it's being around other people who are like-minded and enjoy the process of creating as well,” he said, adding he enjoys being around people and playing off each other, which is difficult to do in a virtual setting.
When COVID-19 first hit and everything was shut down, Wort Hannam did find he had more time to finish songs that were half done or were just simple ideas at the time.
Since completing those songs and writing the album, he said he hasn’t written anything else. He said it’s because travelling to new places and meeting new people are usually where he finds inspiration for new songs, and opportunities to do so have admittedly been lacking over the last two years.
“That’s another reason I’m eager to get on the road again,” he said.
One of Wort Hannam's favourite songs on the new album is called “Hurry up kid.” It’s a song he tends to play at home and one that really resonates with him right now.
The inspiration from the song came when his 10-year old son Charlie was learning from home during the pandemic. Wort Hannam felt he was constantly telling his son to hurry up with getting out of bed, eating breakfast, and then getting set up on his computer for the day's online studies, all while realizing the past 10 years have flown by really fast.
“Here I was telling my kid to hurry up when really what I wanted to do on a bigger life scale is to tell him to slow down,” he said. “I just think to myself, I left my parents' house at 16 and I keep thinking if Charlie leaves when he’s 16, I only have six more years left and that’s it. And it seems it’s not enough.”
Attendees will hear “Hurry up kid” performed at BCLT on March 19 at 7:30 p.m.
Beverly Stadelmann from BCLT said the special thing about Wort Hannam’s music is how lyrically and story-driven the songs are.
“Even if you don’t know the songs, you’re still going to enjoy it because you’re listening to a story and music together and it’s really classically Albertan, the way people used to entertain each other before we had all these gadgets and streaming,” Stadelmann said. “It’s that classic storytelling and folk music.”
Stadelmann from BCLT said it’s the venue’s first music concert back and the first big night out for everybody in Airdrie since public health restrictions were fully lifted on March 1.
Stadelmann anticipates a good turnout and a really great, energetic, and fun show.
“People are so respectful of each other but also really excited to get back to doing social things,” she said. “I think that’s a piece from the pandemic that not everybody could put their finger on totally but it’s such a part of the human experience to get together and celebrate, especially through music.”
Tickets can be purchased ahead of the show in order to reserve the best seats via tickets.airdrie.ca
