Barney Bentall is taking The Cariboo Express back on the road, announcing 11 shows for November — including a three-night run at the Charlie White Theatre in Sidney, BC.
Recently nominated for a 2018 Western Canadian Music Alliance Community Excellence Award, Barney Bentall & The Cariboo Express will continue to use this, their 13th annual tour, to benefit local charities. The initiative has raised more than $1.4 million over the years and counting. This year’s tour will benefit the Empress Theatre Society, Friends of Children, CKUA, Classroom Champions, Saanich Peninsula Lions, Salt Spring Community Services, Nanaimo Region John Howard Society, and the Potluck Café Society.
With more than a decade’s worth of memories to celebrate for Barney Bentall & The Cariboo Express, this annual variety show has become a favourite event across Western Canada as they build tradition and warm hearts of all ages. Established in 2006, the Old West-inspired troupe is helmed by Bentall and features a regular cast of some of Canada’s finest roots and country musicians. Each song is performed by a different lead or collaboration and introduced with a unique monologue scripted by Bentall and co-host, Matt Masters. This year’s roster of friends and guests include Kirby Barber, Ridley Bent, Dustin Bentall, Wendy Bird, Stephanie Cadman, Leeroy Stagger, the Gold Rush All-Star Band.
The tour will mark the end of a busy year for Bentall. Having emerged from a five-year recording hiatus, the JUNO Award-winning artist put forth arguably his most personal and highly anticipated record to date, The Drifter & The Preacher, via True North Records. Bentall later embarked on a national tour with the Jim Cuddy Band, which was followed up with several high profile Canadian summer festival performances including SKOOKUM Fest, Winnipeg Folk Fest, and Oxford Stomp to name a few.
The Drifter & The Preacher continues to garner critical acclaim, and it’s no mystery as to why. Stacked within the tracks lay the great paradox that is Bentall: a nomadic homebody with a musicality so innate, a musician and songwriter who is also a friend, father, brother, husband, and son... A man with a life lived.
This is proven most eloquently in its latest single, “Don’t Wait For Me Marie” and its cinematic, century-swapping video — available on YouTube now
Between frames of fire and wild horses comes the tale of languished lust and Western greed, woven in a way only Bentall can deliver. The song is one of many on The Drifter & The Preacher Bentall says “ultimately wrote” itself.
“There are times I look back and think, ‘well, that’s not where I thought this one was going to go,’” says Bentall. “With ‘Don’t Wait For Me Marie’ I thought, ‘I’m going to write a song about a guy leaving the Fraser Valley near Vancouver in the 1800s to look for gold in the Cariboo.’ I wanted it to be an uptempo bluegrass song because we were starting The High Bar Gang... I was very immersed in that style of music.
“Ultimately, it didn’t quite feel right so I decided to try the song with minor chords and an edgier feel. The feeling, subtext and meaning of the song did a one-eighty and I thought, ‘this was what I was looking for!’
“A song takes you where it wants to take you if you are open and you surrender to those moments. I love the way music can do that to words.
"This was written for my father-in-law,” Bentall shares about The Drifter & The Preacher, his tenth studio album. “Bar none, one of the most interesting and intelligent people I have met.
“He taught me many valuable things and gave me the best friend I have. He died with his boots on at the age of ninety-three. I wrote this at my ranch shortly after on a star-studded night.”
The Drifter & The Preacher is available now.
Barney Bentall Tour Dates
September 13 - Chaffey’s Lock, ON @ Festival of Small Halls — SOLD OUT
September 14 - Tweed, ON @ Festival of Small Halls
September 15 - Ottawa, ON @ CityFolk Festival
October 28 - Saskatoon, SK @ Broadway Theatre (w/ Jim Cuddy Trio)
Barney Bentall & The Cariboo Express Tour Dates
November 2 - Fort MacLeod, AB @ The Empress Theatre — Benefitting the Empress Theatre Society
November 3 - Cranbrook, BC @ Key City Theatre — Benefitting Friends of Children
November 4 - Sherwood Park, AB @ Festival Place
November 9 - Calgary, AB @ Bella Concert Hall — Benefitting Classroom Champions
November 10 - Banff, AB @ Eric Harvie Theatre, The Banff Centre — Benefitting CKUA
November 15 - Sidney, BC @ Charlie White Theatre, Mary Winspear Centre — Benefitting Saanich Peninsula Lions Food Bank
November 16 - Sidney, BC @ Charlie White Theatre, Mary Winspear Centre — Benefitting Saanich Peninsula Lions Food Bank
November 17 - Sidney, BC @ Charlie White Theatre, Mary Winspear Centre — Benefitting Saanich Peninsula Lions Food Bank
November 19 - Salt Spring Island, BC @ Fulford Hall — Benefitting Salt Spring Community Services
November 23 - Nanaimo, BC @ The Port Theatre — Benefitting the Nanaimo Region John Howard Society
November 24 - Vancouver, BC @ The Vogue Theatre — Benefitting the Potluck Café Society
Barney Bentall is taking The Cariboo Express back on the road, announcing 11 shows for November — including a three-night run at the Charlie White Theatre in Sidney, BC.
For more visit www.barneybentall.com