Singer/songwriter /soldier Tim Isberg is all set to come come to play Lethbridge for the first time to open the Lethbridge Folk Club’s new season, Saturday, Sept. 16 at the Lethbridge College Cave.
Isberg, who grew up in Fort Macleod and now makes his home in Sherwood Park is excited to come back to Southern Alberta, especially as he is working on a concept album about Southern Alberta in the 1870s-90s to be released next year called “ Prairie Fire.”
He has never played Lethbridge before.
“ I’m originally from Fort Macleod and went to college in Lethbridge years ago. I’ve played all over the place and somehow Lethbridge has escaped my wrath. So I’m looking forward to actually showing up in really my home town hood and going to student lounge which didn’t exist in that capacity when I was there and playing a show with the Lethbridge Folk Club,” he said, adding he will be joined by his trio including guitarist/ mandolinist/ vocalist Marc Ladouceur and bassist Derek Vokins who is replacing his usual bassist John Hewitt, but is busy with his own projects for this tour.
“I normally play in a trio, sometimes a four piece, but this time it will be the trio of myself and I have a side player who plays guitar and mandolin and some back vocals and also a bass player who also does back vocals so it’s a singer-songwriter show. I’ll be playing mostly tunes off of my last two award nominated albums (‘Running on the Edge’ and ‘Tears along the Road’) And I’m going to give the audience a sneak preview of a couple of new songs that we’re literally just recording this week for a new project that is a history based projects about people and events in the 1800s on the Canadian prairies, specifically a couple songs and about people and events about people in and around Fort Macleod and Lethbridge and Southern Alberta in general,” he said.
“This project was inspired by another degree program I was on once about western Canadian history. Growing up in Fort Macleod and being a former member of the little musical ride there a long, long time ago and working around the Fort Macleod museum and my grandmother growing up in Brocket and teaching in a one room school house out near Pincher Creek back in the early 1900s. I grew up with history all around me and it’s always been interesting to me and my ancestry as well,” he said adding he is excited about the potential of this project.
“It has a huge educational component to it of course . But it is real, songs about real people and real events that happened anywhere between basically the mid 1800s to the late 1800s. Even though that was only 30 not even 40 years, so many things happened between Confederation and let’s say 1899 in terms of the Trans Continental railway, the Northwest Rebellion, the Cypress Hills Massacre, you know Jerry Potts, the local legend, the immigrants, the settlements, all these things happened within a short period of of time. Even the last great Indian battle at Indian Battle Park which commemorates that, all happened within that time frame. So this album reflects that story,” he said.
“All these songs on the new album are story songs and give a little background to each of these events.I’m hoping that excites people into the history that is literally all around them, and they’ll leave the theatre perhaps Googling different things to find out more. And I’ve got the three chapters of the Alberta Historical society involved in this project to some degree including Lethbridge,” he said adding the project is going smoothly as they almost finished recording the bed tracks of the album, which he plans to release in the Spring.
“We‘re over half way though the bed tracks and we’ ll finish in the next couple days and then we’ll do some add ons and overdubs and flesh it out a little bit over the coming month. And there’s a lot of graphics involved. This is very special project,” he said.
The graphics and artwork produced by an artist based on the people and events based on old photographs will be part of the promotional package, postcards and CD cover and liner notes as well as in the show itself.
“It has Canadian interest and certainly Western Canadian interest certainly Albertan interest. So I’m taking my time make sure it‘s done right because it is a special project. It has a special sound and story behind it. And a lot of research went into even writing these songs. It’s not like the songs I usually write where I could just take something out of my own experience as a soldier as a 35 year veteran or just whatever comes into my head and just write a song. These are songs about real things and required some research despite one of my degrees being in Western Canadian history. It required some work. So the album will be put together over the coming month or two and then we’ll do some shows with some of the songs just to road test them and promote the album, he said, adding he plans to start tour support right. One of the highlights will be taking the album to the Folk Alliance in Kansas City the following February.
“There’s really potential for this project to become one of two things. First and foremost I can take this a portion of this show, some of the songs and some of the information about local history to the local high schools. When I’m coming through communities and combine that with a show. When I used to tour a Rwanda show based on my experiences in Rwanda, it was called ‘25 years after, songs and stories of the Canadian soldier in Rwanda.’ I’d stop by and visit the Social Studies classes and have a 45 minute presentation with some music and some imagery and some slides and talk about human rights or being a discerning citizen and peacekeeping and that sort of things. And I’d combine that with a show in the town or the city later on that evening or the next day. However it fell into place. So for this show, this history project I’m hoping to do the same. Maybe I can make a visit a local high school and talk about local history and sing a few tunes and do some Q and A over a 45 or 50 minute period and then that evening or what have you, do the actual show in the community,” he said.
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