Winnipeg country musician Sean Burns is excited to return to Lethbridge , March 9 at the Slice, in support of his hot new fourth album “Lost Country: Music For Taverns, Bars, and Honky Tonks.”
“I’ll be playing with the three core members who are on the album,” Burns said, noting Corb Lund’s guitarist Grant Siemens plus drummer Joanna Miller, who usually plays with Scott Nolan, and bassist Bernie Thiessen will be touring with him.
“It’s 15 dates in 16 days And “Skinny ” (Ryan Dyck) will be joining us for a few dates on steel guitar in Lethbridge, Nanton and Red Deer,“ he enthused, noting Chris Scruggs, grandson of bluegrass/country legend Earl Scruggs, plays steel guitar on the album.
They connected with Scruggs through Siemens‘ contacts who knows Harry Stinson, who plays in Marty Stuart’s band with Scruggs. Both of them guest on the album.
“It was pretty cool to work with them,” Burns said.
They recorded most of the album live off the floor at the Hillside Hideout in Alexander, Manitoba north of Winnipeg. Burns was happy to be able to work at his own pace to record the album.
“We booked the studio for six days in November. We ate there, slept there and lived there so we could work at our own pace. So that was a cool experience,“ Burns said adding he wanted the album to sound as close to the live show as possible.
“Very happy with it. I enjoyed working in the studio,” he continued, noting lyrically the album is straight ahead classic country themed.
“The songs all have classic country themes. So there are songs about trucking and heartbreak and driving on the highway and even a couple of love songs,” he said, adding the band road tested most of the songs before recording them.
“There are only two that we never played live before,“ he said.
“Seven or eight of them we played a lot and they changed the more we played them,” he said.
He noted the last time they played Lethbridge was last year at the Casino with a mostly Lethbridge band.
“Grant was there and Skinny and Tyler Bird and Paul holden. Casino gigs are cool. Usually there is a lot of pressure to sell beer when you play, but at the Casino they were there to listen to the music. And it was a mostly older crowd who wanted to dance,” he recalled.
“ So it was really fun.”
Burns put a stripped down version of “Lonesome Again,” on Skinny Dyck’s Twenty One nighters compilation late last year.
“We redid ‘Lonesome Again.’ So the version on this album is a little different than the one on the compilation,” he continued.
“I always enjoy playing Lethbridge. The last time I played there was at Shaela Miller’s Windy City Opry it’s a cool place to play,” he said.
Sean Burns and Lost Country play the Slice with the Wine Soaked Preachers at 9 p.m., March 9, when the CD is officially released.
