While scrolling through emails, songwriter Trevor Alguire stumbled across a message from an unfamiliar address. After curiously opening the note, Alguire said he was humbled and surprised at what he found.
“It was from this DJ in France and it was in broken English, but he just wrote to tell me that my latest album didn’t just make his day, but his whole month,” Alguire said over the telephone. “When people ask me why I keep making music I say because of that—because of one guy in France who cares enough to send a note.”
At the end of September, the 46-year-old released Perish in the Light, his sixth album. Despite the decades of music behind him, Alguire said this is the first album that he actually feels at ease with.
“I don’t know what it is, but this album just felt like it went together the way it was supposed to,” he said. “It seems like I’m finally starting to figure out how things work and what goes well together.”
Alguire first picked up a guitar as a shaggy-headed teenager in the 1980s, spending hours jotting down rough lyrics and dreaming up guitar riffs.
“Music has always been like a puzzle that I loved putting together. I was always that kid running around trying to put bands together,” he said. “But it wasn’t until I was about 30 that I finally had something to say.
“I think the best songwriters are the ones who have been around for awhile and have been through stuff in life, whether it be tough, amazing or something in between—that’s the stuff that makes a songwriter.”
Since those early days, music has kind of taken over Alguire’s life, blurring the lines between musician, business owner and father.
“It’s not easy finding a balance, but music is pushing me more and more. It’s got a hold of me and won’t let go,” he said. “I love having something to show at the end of the day and I’ve always been that way.”
Drawing from his own stories, the folk-country tracks of Perish in the Light brings listeners down with dark and lonesome ballads like “My Sweet Rosetta” and then picks them back up again with faster-paced tunes like “Flash Flood” and “You Don’t Write Anymore.”
“I want to bring people up and down with my music. I tried to make an album that resembles a month in my life and not just a day,” said the musician. “I don’t write fiction. I write about my life and the people I’ve met and the things that we go through.
“The album is dark, but it’s still hopeful.”
To make his raw lyrics stand out, Alguire said he puts a lot of thought into finding a sweet balance between music and lyrics, adding organs, fiddle and pedal steels to the latest album.
“I start with the vocal pattern and guitar and then all of a sudden I start to hear things come in—I’ll hear a fiddle go through a certain part or I’ll hear an organ in one part,” said Alguire, adding that he brought in a handful of other talented musicians for the recent recordings.
“That’s what being a musician is all about—putting that puzzle together.”
Since the release of Perish in the Light, Alguire has kept busy trekking across Western Canada, booking a slew of shows in Alberta including a stop at Jasper’s Whistle Stop Pub, Nov. 15.
“I like playing in Alberta because people are actually listening. In some places crowd engagement is really dropping off and people don’t seem to listen,” he said. “But in Alberta it’s just different.”
The music starts at 9 p.m. and admission is free.
While scrolling through emails, songwriter Trevor Alguire stumbled across a message from an unfamiliar address. After curiously opening the note, Alguire said he was humbled and surprised at what he found.
“It was from this DJ in France and it was in broken English, but he just wrote to tell me that my latest album didn’t just make his day, but his whole month,” Alguire said over the telephone. “When people ask me why I keep making music I say because of that—because of one guy in France who cares enough to send a note.”
At the end of September, the 46-year-old released Perish in the Light, his sixth album. Despite the decades of music behind him, Alguire said this is the first album that he actually feels at ease with.
“I don’t know what it is, but this album just felt like it went together the way it was supposed to,” he said. “It seems like I’m finally starting to figure out how things work and what goes well together.”
Alguire first picked up a guitar as a shaggy-headed teenager in the 1980s, spending hours jotting down rough lyrics and dreaming up guitar riffs.
“Music has always been like a puzzle that I loved putting together. I was always that kid running around trying to put bands together,” he said. “But it wasn’t until I was about 30 that I finally had something to say.
“I think the best songwriters are the ones who have been around for awhile and have been through stuff in life, whether it be tough, amazing or something in between—that’s the stuff that makes a songwriter.”
Since those early days, music has kind of taken over Alguire’s life, blurring the lines between musician, business owner and father.
“It’s not easy finding a balance, but music is pushing me more and more. It’s got a hold of me and won’t let go,” he said. “I love having something to show at the end of the day and I’ve always been that way.”
Drawing from his own stories, the folk-country tracks of Perish in the Light brings listeners down with dark and lonesome ballads like “My Sweet Rosetta” and then picks them back up again with faster-paced tunes like “Flash Flood” and “You Don’t Write Anymore.”
“I want to bring people up and down with my music. I tried to make an album that resembles a month in my life and not just a day,” said the musician. “I don’t write fiction. I write about my life and the people I’ve met and the things that we go through.
“The album is dark, but it’s still hopeful.”
To make his raw lyrics stand out, Alguire said he puts a lot of thought into finding a sweet balance between music and lyrics, adding organs, fiddle and pedal steels to the latest album.
“I start with the vocal pattern and guitar and then all of a sudden I start to hear things come in—I’ll hear a fiddle go through a certain part or I’ll hear an organ in one part,” said Alguire, adding that he brought in a handful of other talented musicians for the recent recordings.
“That’s what being a musician is all about—putting that puzzle together.”
Since the release of Perish in the Light, Alguire has kept busy trekking across Western Canada, booking a slew of shows in Alberta including a stop at Jasper’s Whistle Stop Pub, Nov. 15.
“I like playing in Alberta because people are actually listening. In some places crowd engagement is really dropping off and people don’t seem to listen,” he said. “But in Alberta it’s just different.”
The music starts at 9 p.m. and admission is free.
Kayla Byrne [email protected]
