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Hailing from Southern Ontario, Spencer Burton has toured nationally, and in the United States, with City and Colour, Daniel Romano, Jenn Grant, and more. From his punk rock roots as part of Attack in Black to the darker country-inspired sound of his two first solo albums under the name Grey Kingdom, Burton’s multifaceted musical trajectory has branched into indie and rock aesthetics while maintaining his folky sound. In 2012, Spencer dropped Grey Kingdom in favour of his own name, moving towards a more natural country-folk sensibility. Already living quietly in a slow country town, a period of intense world isolation prompted Burton to leave the city even further behind. An overload of negative information and fear left him feeling hopeless and uninspired to create music. He sat back for a couple of years watching what felt like the world crumbling around him. Retreating to a small off-grid cabin in Northern Ontario, Spencer reconnected with nature and found peace and comfort in isolation. Taking a step back from the realities of life let him step back into making music. “I always felt this need for importance, this need to be poetic. It came, but it felt mandatory at times. I struggled with that,” says Burton. “But then I found beauty in the simple things. A bird’s song. A rustling gale. A ripple in the water. With the beauty of those simple things came importance and poetry in an unforced, natural way.” The majority of North Wind was written in the north woods, in solitude and reflection. And while the songs have a spiritual importance, they also speak to ordinary life away from it all — fishing, an encounter with a coyote, sitting with your own thoughts. Recorded again in Nashville with Andrija Tokic, like 2021’s Coyote (Still Records), North Wind fits sonically with the rest of Burton’s catalogue, but the tone is noticeably different. The songs are easier, more comfortable, at ease. They encapsulate that same feeling he had out there alone, of singing by the campfire into the woods. “I’m not really trying to write music these days,” says Burton. “I’m trying to write good feelings.” The songs are easier, more comfortable, at ease. They encapsulate that same feeling he had out there alone, of singing by the campfire into the woods.
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
491 Canboro Rd. , Fenwick, ON, Canada, Ontario L0S 1C0, 491 Canboro Rd, Pelham, ON L0S 1C0, Canada,Fonthill, Ontario, Welland
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