Leah Barley Archives | Folk Roots Radio

Leah Barley – Bring Out Your Dead – Folk Roots Radio Interview

Mar 05 2021

Vancouver based singer-songwriter Leah Barley‘s first full-length recording “Bring Out Your Dead” is an album of light and dark that feels right at home within the folk genre. The eight original songs on the album, which were written for both guitar and banjo, range from rousing boot stompers like “I Wish” and “Drinkin’” to the chill-inducing “Rise” and “The Doctor” (which recounts a recent period of severe illness, from which she has thankfully recovered). An accomplished self-taught banjo player, as well as guitarist, Leah Barley is joined on the album by a full band featuring her longtime collaborators violist John Kastelic and multi-instrumentalist Ross Christopher Fairbairn. Because of the on-going coronavirus pandemic, Leah has not been able to tour the new album, or even play a real release show. She hopes that she will be able to remedy that in 2021. Leah Barley joined us on Folk Roots Radio for an in-depth conversation about the project. For more information about the music of Leah Barley, visit leahbarleymusic.com. Music: Leah Barley, “Mountains”, “Bring Out Your Dead”, “The Doctor” and “Hush” from “Bring Out Your Dead” (2020, self).

Folk Roots Radio Episode 560: Our Favourite Albums of 2020

Dec 27 2020

We’re getting close to the end of 2020, which means it’s time to announce our favourite albums of the year. After the challenging year we’ve all had, it’s tempting to just want to put 2020 behind us and move on to 2021 to what will, hopefully, be a much better year for everyone. And yet, despite everything, 2020 has actually been a great year for recorded music – especially for those us who tend to focus on music that artists release independently, or via small and boutique record labels. Many artists have actually been making excellent use of the lockdown time forced on them by the coronavirus pandemic to record some wonderful ‘Covid Tune’ singles, EPs and in some case, even full albums. We’ve had great fun sharing them with you this year. We’ve also been doing our best to keep up with regularly scheduled releases. It gives us great pleasure each year, once we have put holiday radio episodes to bed, to consider our favourite albums of the year. One of the best things about doing a radio show is getting loads of great music to listen to each week. One of the hardest things to do is to take all that fabulous music and narrow it down to your ten favourite recordings of the year. You can check out The Top 10 on Episode 560 of Folk Roots Radio. We’ll be playing more of our favourite albums on upcoming episodes of Folk Roots Radio. If you don’t see an album you really loved, that’s likely because it didn’t make it up on our radar because we didn’t receive a copy. Please consider sharing your favourite albums in the comments – we might even spin them on a future episode of the show. Listen to The Top 10 on this episode, and check out the full playlist and the rest of our long list below. Enjoy!

Folk Roots Radio Episode 556: feat. Leah Barley - Bring Out Your Dead & More New Release

Dec 11 2020

Vancouver based singer-songwriter Leah Barley joins us on Episode 556 of Folk Roots Radio to chat about her first full length album “Bring Out Your Dead” which features eight original songs for both guitar and banjo – ranging from foot stomping love songs to others that are dark and broody, and, clearly, quite personal. It’s a great listen, and an excellent interview – we hope you’ll stay with us to check it out. As always, we wrap up the episode with more of the new music we’ve received and this time around we hear from Braden Gates, Julie Title, Tré Burt, Gwenifer Raymond, Ordinary Elephant, Chris Pierce and Cidny Bullens. Check out the full playlist below.

Folk Roots Radio Episode 552: feat. Glen MacNeil - Self Title E.P. & More New Releases

Nov 20 2020

Tecumseh ON singer-songwriter Glen MacNeil joins us on Episode 552 of Folk Roots Radio to chat about his new self-titled EP, the follow up to the wonderful “Where The Heart Remains” from 2015 – one of our favourite albums of that year. The new EP, most of which was recorded in Covid lockdown, is also an excellent album. As always, we wrap up the episode with more of the latest new releases and this time around we hear from Leah Barley, Sophia Clark, Terra Spencer, Grace Pettis, Redi Hasa, Steve Conn and VISSIA. Check out the full playlist below.