Soaring with sentiments of hope, love, longing, and loss, multi-platinum selling Juno-winning artist Barney Bentall plots a sonic constellation that goes from Americana to traditional Folk on his upcoming album Cosmic Dreamer — showcasing today on Tinnitist.
With special guests Ruth Moody, Valentino Trapani and Adrian Dolan joining on three songs, the 11-track LP features nine new all-originals from the prolific artist alongside two covers — Bob Dylan’s You Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go and Gordon Lightfoot’s Shadows.
Cosmic Dreamer marks the seventh solo release for Bentall, whose catalogue now numbers over 20 when you include titles by his Juno-winning band The Legendary Hearts and his other releases with The High Bar Gang, Bentall Taylor Ulrich and The Cariboo Express.
“I wanted to experiment with other things and everybody, bless their hearts, was very good about it,” says Bentall, whose ever-broadening range of styles encoompasses roots, country, bluegrass and even instrumental, as heard in his recent album RanchWriters, written and released with long-time friend, Spirit of the West’s Geoffrey Kelly. “It’s important for me to write songs and try different music styles. Why limit myself? To me, it’s just good music.”
COVID-19 caused Bentall to spend less time with other songwriters and musicians than he would have in the past, so Cosmic Dreamer has fewer co-writes than previous efforts. Bentall co-produced the album with multi-instrumentalist Dolan, and much of it was recorded and mixed at Dolan’s Track + Trestle studio in Ladysmith, B.C. The album-closing Cody Road was recorded by The Drifter & The Preacher producer John Raham at Vancouver’s Afterlife Studios.
Bentall wrote Cosmic Dreamer’s title track at Yellowpoint Lodge on Vancouver Island in late February 2020 while he was taking a course at Ladysmith Marine Institute to receive a new certification to allow him to continue to drive rigid-hulled inflatable Zodiac boats on Arctic expeditions for a travel company called Adventure Canada.
Cosmic Dreamer Tracklisting
Cosmic Dreamer
Whiskey Jack (Home)
Why Are You So Sad
Soul Sister
You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go (feat. Valentino Trapani)
Oh Foolish Me
Not Standing Up To You
Shadows
No Good Time To Go
Potter’s Wheel (feat. Ruth Moody)
Cody Road
Watch the Cosmic Dreamer video above, pre-order the album HERE, hear more from Barney Bentall below and find him at his website, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
