Richard Inman is a storyteller with strong roots in Western Canada. The singer-songwriter, who divides his time between southern Alberta and Winnipeg, Manitoba, has a new album that’s making waves in the places where folk and country meet.
Damage I Done, recorded with his band, the Western Canadian All-Stars, includes ten songs about love, home, and growing pains. Inman has connections to many different communities and parts of the country. When he’s in Alberta, he lives near the Waterton Reservoir. “I’m registered with the Blood Tribe,” he says, “and my grandparents had a farm outside Hill Spring, near where I live now.”
Most of the songs were written in the past two years, but recording them took some planning, and some travel. Acme Recorders and The Rabbit Hole were the two Alberta recording studios that Inman used to lay down the majority of the album’s tracks. Finally, he says, “By March, I was working for a sale barn and visiting my parents and trying to get my head on straight, so I booked one last studio in Winnipeg called Paintbox Recording.”
The first single, “Lovin’ and Leavin’,” is a track recorded with Alberta country star Noeline Hofmann. “I put that song on the back burner for a while, but then I came back to it. I started playing it, messing around with it on my lunch breaks, and I just thought it was nice.”
Inman sent a voice memo to a few friends, including Hofmann. The stars aligned and Hofmann recorded it with Inman and the Western Canadian All-Stars. “She had a day off, and she was in Calgary,” says Inman.” He’s glad she was available, and says, “I always had her in mind for it.”
Inman might be underselling it when he describes the song as “nice.” It’s a lilting tune, with heartfelt lyrics, and the harmonies between Inman and Hofmann make it soar.
Now, as the album launches, Inman is looking ahead to touring, and possibly more recording.
“I try to keep a healthy balance,” he says. Working jobs in delivery, agriculture, construction, and other industries far removed from the music business has helped, not harmed, his music career. He describes previous years of extensive touring (160 shows per year) as “the most unhealthy I’ve ever been,” and notes that living out of a mini-van is not easy. Now, he says, “It was important to me to get back in touch with my roots.”
Before making firm plans to record or travel more, Inman has one gig, reasonably close to home. He’ll play WayneStock on the Labour Day long weekend. It might involve the kind of scheduling and travel that Inman is used to. “I think we play at 8, and then we’re zipping to Manitoba, to catch my cousin’s oldest daughter’s wedding. So I’ll play and then jump in the truck and get going.”
Find information about WayneStock, featuring Richard Inman and the Western Canadian All-Stars here.
“Lovin’ and Leavin’” is the first single from Damage I Done, the new album by Richard Inman and the Western Canadian All-Stars.
