With 16 albums, a Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame induction and a career that has taken him from intimate venues to the International Space Station, Lennie Gallant has certainly accumulated a few stories along the way. The celebrated Canadian singer-songwriter is bringing those stories to the UK, with an appearance at the British Country Music Festival followed by a mini UK tour.

Gallant’s music has always had a strong sense of place, storytelling and humanity, drawing on his Acadian roots while embracing everything from humour and heartbreak to history and hope. Ahead of his UK dates, we spoke with him about his latest album, Shelter From the Storms, songwriting inspiration, working with the late Jimmy Buffett, and why he still enjoys hearing a new song come to life.



Your album Shelter From the Storms tackles some pretty heavy subjects, but you’ve also described yourself as someone who finds humour in life. When the world gets complicated, is laughter part of your songwriting survival kit?


Very much so. I grew up in a hard-scrabble Acadian community whose backstory is fraught with terrible circumstances. Anyone who knows anything about Acadian history will know that it includes ethnic cleansing through mass deportations, with families torn apart and left impoverished.

Despite all this — and perhaps because of it — the community I grew up in is known for its generosity, spirit and positive outlook. There’s a real joie de vivre there, probably because historically people know what hard times are really all about. Life is something to be savoured, enjoyed and shared, but never taken for granted.

I like to think that some of that attitude is reflected in my music and my songs. I do try to look at serious situations in certain songs, but I also like to think that, in general, my music is pretty positive in terms of its themes and stories.

Anyone who has ever been to one of my shows will know that laughter plays a huge role. I use humorous stories quite often as a way of offsetting some of the more serious subjects that might come up in the songs.

So, yeah… I like to laugh, and I like to make my audience laugh as well. It’s really great medicine for a troubled world, and I really think it brings people together, both in a concert hall and in everyday life.

One of your albums has literally orbited Earth 248 times. Has that changed the way you answer the question, “Where have you played?”

Ha ha ha… It’s true that one of my albums, in CD form, actually went up to the International Space Station with Canadian astronaut Julie Payette and circled the world 248 times.

I tell my audience that I’m so glad that, after so many years in the music business, I finally had songs in high rotation all around the world!

It was very cool that she took a few CDs by Canadian songwriters to share with the other crew members. There was a special ceremony with her later on where I was presented with framed photographs of her and the crew, with my actual CD embedded into the frame.

There was a second one showing her in front of a window in the space station, with planet Earth in the background and my CD floating in space. It was pretty cool to have that happen.

You’ve written songs that feel like little slices of real life. What’s the strangest or most unexpected real-life moment that has ever made you think, “That’s definitely going in a song”?

It’s a real mystery sometimes as to what will trigger your desire to write a song. I love the line from Leonard Cohen where he says, “If I knew where all the good songs came from, I would go there more often.”

There are times when you sit down to write where you know, in general, what the subject matter is, but then it takes a lot of work to actually get there. Every once in a while, though, you might overhear a turn of phrase, read a story or perhaps see a picture that inspires you to put something down.

Occasionally, a song will arrive almost complete, where you feel like you’re actually taking dictation rather than writing a song. It doesn’t happen very often, and it feels like you have to be totally ready for it, but when it does, it feels like such a gift. A couple of my better-known songs were written like that, including Peter’s Dream and Pieces of You.

On a more comical note, a good friend of mine once told me about how one of his horses had passed away. My friend’s whole life had been spent working with heavy horses, so they meant a lot to him.

He said he had to bury the horse and had an older friend help him with the task. He also said that they had to kill a bottle of booze while doing it to get through the job. My buddy told me that, after they were done, his friend looked at him and said, “Dave… it takes a lot of liquor to bury a horse!”

When Dave told me the story over the phone, I said to him, “Dave, that is a line looking for a song.”

So that afternoon I wrote the song, which appears on my latest album: It Takes a Lot of Liquor to Bury a Horse. It’s a song we get the audience singing along to during a show, and it appears to be quite a hit.

You’ve performed with symphony orchestras, shared stages with huge artists and even ended up working with Jimmy Buffett. Is there a moment in your career that still makes you pinch yourself?

It’s true that I’ve had a lot of great moments where I’ve had to practically pinch myself, thinking, “Is this really happening?”

Getting a call from Jimmy Buffett to work with him was certainly one of them. Performing on stage with him, and then having him fly me down to Margaritaville and Key West to record with him on his last album, was definitely a career highlight.

It’s an amazing album, Equal Strain on All Parts, and it also features Paul McCartney and Emmylou Harris, just to name a few people who perform on that record. So it was pretty humbling to be in that company.

I’ve also had the opportunity to work with several orchestras. I remember doing two nights with Symphony Nova Scotia — two-hour shows with the symphony backing just my songs. That was amazing and one of the most memorable shows of my career.

I’ve had a lot of great experiences through music, and it’s hard to pinpoint one or two that were what you’d term the best, but I’d certainly put those two in the top ten.

Jimmy Buffett invited you to co-write and sing on his final album. What did you learn from him about songwriting — or simply about enjoying the ride?

Most of the songs on all of my albums are songs that I wrote alone, but there are a few co-writes here and there.

I used to go down to Nashville a few times a year and do a lot of writing there, mostly for that particular market, and that’s always an interesting experience. Sometimes a really cool song would come out of a session like that, and then sometimes it’s really painful when you’re in a three-hour session and you know the song’s not really going to go that well, but you’ve got to finish it anyway!

Most of the time, when you co-write, it’s a real back-and-forth volley with lyrics, melody and ideas. The two songs I co-wrote with Jimmy Buffett for his last album were, in one case, a three-way writing situation, and the other was a four-way.

I found that, in this situation, Jimmy almost played the role of ringmaster. He’d give us a basic idea of where he’d like the song to go, through an image or an idea, and then grab all the various ideas and melodies we were throwing out. He would pick and choose what he liked and didn’t like, bounce some ideas back, and keep doing that until the song started to take shape.

It was a very different form of songwriting, but I really enjoyed it because it was so alive and exciting.

I’m very sad that we’ll never get to do it again with him. He had a wonderful energy and loved sharing it with the people around him. He was a very positive guy, so you can see why so many people followed him and were fans.

After sixteen albums, do you still get that little buzz when you hear a brand-new song of yours played back for the first time, or have you become better at pretending to be cool about it?

Oh yes, I still get the buzz. I think if you become blasé about writing songs and hearing them completed, then maybe it’s time to hang it up.

It’s always exciting when you’re in the studio and the song is really starting to come together. It’s also pretty exciting to play them for an audience for the first time and get that initial reaction.

I particularly love it when someone covers one of my songs in a really great way. It’s a real honour to have someone do that and make you see your own work in a different light.

Shelter From the Storms feels particularly relevant to the world right now. When you’re writing about difficult times, how do you stop a song from becoming hopeless — and find that thread of resilience?

I guess it really depends on the song and the story that you’re presenting. Sometimes, when you’re writing about a slice of life, maybe you’re just trying to make someone pay attention to a particular situation. Maybe your job there isn’t necessarily to find a thread of resilience, but simply to cast a light on an issue.

I do like to think that most of my songs are hopeful in some form or other. I think I’m a pretty positive guy in general. Otherwise, I probably wouldn’t be in this business — ha ha ha!

The music business is not an easy one, especially these days. I would have to say that my favourite songs, where I do talk about serious issues, would have some kind of light involved with them.

You and Patricia Richard perform together as Sirène et Matelot. What’s the secret to successfully making music with your partner without bringing the entire rehearsal room home with you?

I’m a very lucky guy to have someone like Patricia to work with. She is an extremely positive person and has a lot of energy. She’s also super-talented as a singer and musician, and I’m very fortunate that she has put so much of that into my work.

She is extremely charismatic on stage as well, as many people point out. She’s also much better technically when it comes to the internet — thank God! She takes care of that element of my career in a big way.

It was really fun working on the Sirène et Matelot albums with her. Her French is far better than mine, as she grew up speaking French, whereas I learned it later in life. So, when we write French songs together, I depend heavily on her to make sure we get the grammar and flow right.

It can be a bit of a challenge, however, when your significant other is also such a big part of your career. We spend an amazing amount of time together on the road, and it is something you have to be careful with. You try not to let the business and your career completely dominate your relationship.

We both recognise that we need to take more time together where we can totally leave the business behind. And that’s perhaps easier said than done.

But so far, so good… We still love each other after working together for many years, and I can’t imagine having anyone else by my side in this crazy business.

Your songs have travelled from tiny rooms to concert halls — and apparently all the way into orbit. Is there anywhere left on Earth, or beyond it, where you’d love to hear one of your songs played?

It would be awesome to one day play the Royal Albert Hall! Ha ha ha.

Peter’s Dream has now been inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame. If you could sit down with the person you were when you wrote it, what would you tell him about where that song would eventually end up?

He wouldn’t believe me, I’m sure… So I’d probably make something up! Ha!

You’ve been described as having a “poet’s flair” and a “rugged emotional sensibility”. Do you recognise yourself in that description, or does it make you think, “Who are they talking about?”

Those are descriptions that I really appreciate, as I think in many of my songs I like to try to find a good balance between real life and a poetic rendition, and hope to be able to reach people with a song that reflects their own personal experiences.

If you can do that, and yet have a twist of phrase or a rhyme that makes them look at it from where they come from, or what they’re experiencing, in a way that enriches it for them, then I think you have brought that song to life.

After all the awards, albums, adventures and stories, what still makes you sit down with a guitar and think, “Yep — I’ve got another song in me”?

I’ve never really given serious thought to worrying about whether I still have another song in me. I believe that’s what I was put on this earth to do, and I will probably continue to do it until my last days.

I love writing songs and trying to capture something special in a few verses and a chorus. I don’t really think that I will ever lose that drive.

Upcoming UK Shows:

Sept 5: British Country Music Festival, Blackpool
Sept 6: Cafe #9, Sheffield
Sept 7: The Cluny 2, Newcastle Upon Tyne