David Francey, The Road to the Junos, Again

Peter Bird | Apr 10, 2024

David Francey is a local folk singer and a songwriter of 13 albums, the latest being ‘The Breath Between’, which recently won him his fourth Juno Award, putting him in the top 100 Juno winners.

David is steeped in traditional folk music. In the 1970’s he was exposed to the Irish band called Planxty. And so, for ten years, all he ever listened to was Irish music.

“I think that went into informing the songs I write now,” says David.

All his songs are basically folksongs, stories that are chronicling his times.

David continues, “The original folk songs were like…Johnny went down to the pub one night and woke up shanghai’d in Bermuda. It was current affairs then. That’s what I’m trying to do, and hopefully the songs last long enough down the road.”

His music is about real life, and the working class. In fact, one might call him the Poet Laureate of the working class.

David has a genius for writing a poem and then setting it to music. He doesn’t play any musical instrument, but has the ability to make up the lyrics. David says, “I start the song by singing it to myself. As soon as I write that first line I have the melody, and then I just build on it from there.

His motivation for the latest album is perhaps best understood when he introduces the title song from his Juno winning album.

“I’m at that stage in life where time lived, versus time left, is a very bad ratio at the moment and getting worse by the day. I just notice an awful lot of people that I admired over the years are no longer with us. When they go, I always say, on you go, and thanks for the visit. But you miss them none the less. Life just seems so brief at this end, it’s just like a breath itself … one minute you’re here, and in a breath you’re gone. So I wrote this song called ‘The Breath Between’.”

David began writing songs for the album ‘The Breath Between’ just before COVID, around the time he lost his voice.

“I had a brand new record out called The Broken Heart of Everything”, says David, “and I had a tour lined up for Australia, Europe, Canada, the U.S., and the U.K., which I had to cancel. I literally cancelled my future.”

He returned home hoping his voice would come back and took a couple of years off until COVID was over.

He continues, “I was writing all of that time. I got a nice spell of writing where the quality of writing was really high. So I picked the best of that period.”

Fortunately his voice came back, and touring began in 2023 to promote the album with the new group - Terra Spencer, Chris Murphy and Jess Wedden.

David says, “I had the great good fortune when I was making this record, of running into a fantastic singer, a lady by the name of Terra Spencer from Windsor NS. She was really huge in the writing of The Breath Between, helping me to get through things on time, and became a great musical friend.”

David had played for years with Mark Westburg, a guitar player, David’s main musical man, on his last four albums. But Mark fell in love and moved to P.E.I.

“With gigs lining up,” David continues, “I was really at sea and I thought - what am I going to do? I met Jess Wedden, whom I had been fortunate to have in one of my song writing classes, at her high school in Sharbot Lake. Jess was the shining star on that day. I was astonished by her talent, her song writing and her guitar playing. I had asked Jess to join me professionally and asked if she knew any guitar players. She told me Chris Murphy was a great friend of hers and she loved his playing. So I sent Chris some songs to learn. When he showed up with Jess, I’ve never seen anything like it, a giant of a man. I said, how about doing a few songs and, without a caveat, there was no pause, no um, no excuses, nothing, he just launched into it and played perfectly on every song after. So I hired him on the spot. I could not be happier about who I play with right now. It’s been an absolute god-send to meet these two. They’ve rejuvenated my love of music and playing live. I couldn’t be happier.

And so, at the 2024 Juno Awards in Halifax, for the fourth time David got to say,

“Thank you . . .”