Canada’s Barrel Boys currently congregate in the outskirts of Ontario. “We all came together in the west part of Toronto, and during our first few years as a band, we lived within a few subway stops of one another,” fiddler Nathan Smith explains. “Even though none of us are actually from Toronto, we all spent formative years there, and that’s where The Barrel Boys ‘grew up’ as a band. In the last few years, we’ve all left the big city, and we’re spread out across a few different places. However Toronto will always have a ‘hometown’ feel for us.”
The band — which consists of Smith, Ben Wright (guitar), Kyle Kirkpatrick (dobro), Rob McLaren (banjo), and Tim O’Reilly (bass) — came together more or less organically in the fall of 2012. “Ben and Tim had played together in a previous band, and they asked me to play fiddle for a wedding gig. Then the three of us joined Rob at a small café show one afternoon, after which, Tim invited Kyle to the next band practice. That’s the lineup we still have twelve years later!”
Early on, things took off in earnest after they were offered a Tuesday night residency at a small pub called The Cloak and Dagger. “We played two years worth of Tuesdays, and by the time we left, we’d amassed several hours worth of repertoire,” Smith continues. “We released our first album of original music, and became a really cohesive unit.”
Smith says that Toronto’s bluegrass scene overlaps with the city’s old-time and folk scenes, so most of the bands that originate there are informed by a musical melting pot. “Our sound blends elements of traditional bluegrass, Appalachian old-time music, acoustic country, and roots music,” he adds. “Because we have five great singers in the band, we put a lot of emphasis on our vocal harmonies. After twelve-plus years of singing together, we’ve really gotten to know what each other’s voices sound like, and the vocal blend just gets deeper and more fun.”
Early on, The Barrel Boys’ prime influence was a band called The Foggy Hogtown Boys, who, he says, were performing weekly in Toronto. “Pretty much every bluegrass musician in the city would hang out at their shows,” Smith recalls. “On top of being virtuosic players, they had this high-energy, in-your-face style of playing that was really compelling, and everyone in the band sang lead and harmony vocals. Their repertoire ranged from Bill Monroe standards, to old-time fiddle tunes, to original songs. They set a really strong precedent for what a bluegrass band could sound like, and to a certain extent, we’ve followed a similar path musically… but with more emphasis on our original material. We also love John Hartford, Hazel and Alice, Flatt and Scruggs, The Stanley Brothers, old country singers like Buck Owens and George Jones, and roots groups like The Band and The Wood Brothers. However we all listen to a huge array of music, so there are through-lines to our sound from all kinds of sources.”
Over the past dozen years or so, the band has maintained a regular presence at festivals and concert stages in every Canadian province except Newfoundland and Labrador. They’ve even traveled up to the Yukon. “Since a few of us have families at home, we don’t go out for many super-long tours these days,” Smith maintains. “But we have covered a lot of ground. We’ve performed at many of the bigger bluegrass festivals across Canada, including Blueberry, Tottenham, Cowichan Valley, Kluane Mountain, Nimblefingers, Shady Grove, and Northern Lights.”
Indeed, Smith says the experience has been very rewarding. “It’s been a beautiful thing to meet people in bluegrass scenes across the country, and to be welcomed into a larger community,” he mused. “We’ve played some incredible folk festivals too, like Mariposa, Lunenburg, and Salmon Arm Roots and Blues. While we love the specific jam culture that surrounds a bluegrass festival, it’s also really special to get to share a weekend with bands that are playing music that’s completely different from ours.”
In that regard, they’ve shared festival bills with any number of luminaries, including John Reischman, The Slocan Ramblers, The Lonesome Ace Stringband, Becky Buller, and Missy Raines & Allegheny.
“Of course one of the best parts about a festival is getting to jam with all of these incredible musicians backstage or in the camping area,” Smith insists.
Happily, The Barrel Boys have also been well received back home. “We’re really grateful for the enthusiastic reception our music has garnered over the years,” Smith maintains. “Because of the nature of our original songwriting and our wide array of influences, we tend to be the folk band at a bluegrass festival and the bluegrass band at a folk festival, and so there’s something in it for everyone to enjoy. We’ve had dyed-in-the-wool bluegrass fans tell us we were a breath of fresh air, while other listeners have said, ‘I normally don’t care for bluegrass, but I like your music!’ Our songs are upbeat and optimistic, and the five of us are close friends who love to play and be on stage together. That sort of positivity is contagious!”
To date, The Barrel Boys have released three full-length albums of original material and two EPs. Their last album, Mainline, earned them a nomination for Vocal Group of the Year at the Canadian Folk Music Awards in 2021. The group’s fourth full-length album of originals, Chicken in the Window, is set to come out this summer.
Smith was kind enough to share a few videos as well
“Starry Crown is our newest single. We’ve put a bluegrass twist on this old song from The Woodie Brothers.”
“Mainline to the Heart is an original modern bluegrass song from our bassist Tim O’Reilly, which speaks about the hard times we witnessed touring through small industry towns in Northern Ontario.”
“The Lakeview Dance is an upbeat acoustic country song that I composed.”
“Upgraded Love comes across as a sad, but slightly tongue-in-cheek heartbreak song by our banjo player Rob McLaren.”
“We started out playing bluegrass standards, and we will always love classic bluegrass, but with five gifted songwriters in the band, our focus shifted quickly to original material,” Smith relates. “Since we all have slightly different musical tastes, the writing brings an exciting diversity to our sound, and it’s always fun to see what each of us comes up with. While each of us tends to do the initial songwriting alone, the arranging process is always a team effort, so all these different songs end up cohesively sounding like us. Of course, the unifying sound of us is constantly evolving as we each grow and change.”
It’s hardly surprising then that Smith has his own theory as to why bluegrass enjoys such widespread popularity.
“Bluegrass has a number of things going for it,” he notes. “It’s acoustic music played on fairly accessible instruments, so anyone can learn to play this music anywhere. The music is generally uplifting, or at least cathartic, and speaks to universal human sentiments. The well-defined canon of repertoire and the uncomplicated chord progressions of those old standards allow bluegrass musicians from all over the world to instantly be able to jam together on songs they both know and love. For this reason, bluegrass is great community-building music. We’ve taught at bluegrass camps across Canada, and it’s a thrill to experience and facilitate the group music-making that happens in these communities. Also, more personally, we love that bluegrass has all-ages appeal. It’s special for us to make music that both our parents and our children can listen to and have a great time.”
