Some old songs, new songs, dance songs and spur-of-the-moment songs are in the lineup when Bill Bourne performs in Red Deer.
The Central Alberta troubadour is returning to familiar turf to entertain at the Golden Circle on Saturday, Feb. 21.
“It’s always good to come home,” said Bourne, who lives in Edmonton but was raised on a farm west of Penhold.
As a child, Bourne remembers his parents would find him sleeping behind the piano at rural dances. He said the love of nature he developed from his Central Alberta upbringing and his early appreciation of dance music played in community halls has stayed with him all of his life.
The Juno Award-winning singer has become known for experimenting with various roots music influences — Celtic, Cajun and gypsy — to create blues tunes stamped with his own indelible, soulful style.
The most recent genre that’s piqued Bourne’s interest is flamenco. But he’s clear that it just influences some of his songs, which are still more about the blues.
“Gypsy and flamenco influences are very potent to me: I’m attracted to the intensity, the passion and the rhythms of this music. It seems primal, yet very sophisticated,” said Bourne.
“Also it’s music that’s communal, and that tends to bring down the barrier that the stage sometimes imposes on music.
“I like that in music,” he added.
Bourne has been perfecting Spanish-style guitar fingering over the last couple of decades — ever since someone gave him a 90-minute flamenco music tape. “I must have listened to it three or four hundred times while travelling,” said the musician, so the style was bound to seep in.
Bourne’s 2012 album, Songs From a Gypsy Caravan, sprang out of his flamenco fascination. The crowd at his Red Deer show might hear Spanish influences in such songs as Ode To Darlin’ Cory, his version of the Darling Corey Appalachian tune.
He promises other familiar material will also be on his set list when he performs here, including Old Buffalo, The House and Dance and Celebrate, the title track from his 1990 Juno Award-winning Bourne & MacLeod album.
The audience could also hear some less predictable music created on the spot. Bourne has lately been testing his spontaneity by coming up with instant melodies in the recording studio or on stage in front of audiences.
The tunes are improvised on his guitar and Bourne chimes in vocally, so the music “comes alive,” he said — which is more engaging for him than repeating songs played hundreds of times before.
“I’m more interested in the energy of the music and being creative than (thinking of it) as this song goes like this. ...”
The singer/songwriter has performed with many different musical “friends” and bands over the years, including Shannon Johnson, Wyckham Porteous in the Bop Ensemble, Alan MacLeod in Bourne & MacLeod, and Lester Quitzau and Madagascar Slim in Tri-Continental and The Free Radio Band.
His next project is contributing to the soundtrack for an Edmonton-made movie, about which he can’t yet reveal any details.
Bourne said he’s looking forward to his intimate Red Deer show. The singer and his guitar will perform an acoustic concert that’s laced with a few stories and the rich musical traditions he’s drawn from over the years.
Tickets to the 7 p.m. event are $15 in advance from the Golden Circle, or $20 at the door at 4620 47A Ave.
lmichelin@www.reddeeradvocate.com