They say home is where the heart is, but for Dave McCann and the Firehearts it is also where the rock’n’roll is.
Their latest album, Circle of Light, was recorded in their home base of Lethbridge, Alta. and was largely inspired by the windy city and surrounding prairies that McCann calls home.
McCann moved from the big city of Calgary down to Lethbridge seven years ago with his wife. He explained that she was from the small town of Champion, about 70 km north of Lethbridge and with a population of around 370. She wasn’t ready to settle in a big city anytime soon.
The move was a huge change for McCann, but one that paid off.
“I fell in love with Lethbridge, it’s an incredible place,” said McCann. He went on to describe his love of nearby Waterton Provincial Park and the Blackfoot culture in the area.
“That all sort of rubbed off on me as far as the incredible natural environment of the prairies themselves,” said McCann.
He grew up in Peterborough, Ont. and had originally decided to move out to the West Coast. He said he got to Victoria and it rained for a week straight – something McCann wasn’t a fan of. He had stopped in Calgary on his way to visit his sister and made the decision to relocate there – a place he said initially struck him as sunny and having a warm fall season.
“It is just a totally different kind of magic that the prairies have when you’re out there on the hills,” McCann continued.
This magic is the inspiration for a lot of the songs on the latest release Circle of Light, a record that was recorded with producer Leeroy Stagger at the Rebeltone Ranch in Lethbridge.
The last album released by the group was 2009’s Dixiebluebird that was recorded in Nashville, Tenn. with Will Kimbrough, who had worked with artists such as Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell. He said the experience of recording in Nashville was incredible, but a little overwhelming at times.
This time, he said the comfort level of working with Stagger was wonderful, especially with the members having kids and families in Lethbridge.
“Working with Leeroy as a producer was an incredible experience. We are lucky in the province to have him here with a studio and be able to make records right here at home,” McCann said.
McCann said he had originally gone into the studio with Stagger thinking that the songs would lend themselves to be more of an acoustic record.
As soon as he hit the studio he said things took a complete 180 and it became apparent this was going to be a rock record.
Not surprising for a musician who had been described as ‘Motorhead-meets-Merle Haggard.’
“We maybe did four or five rehearsals with the songs to learn them,” he explained of the recording experience. “I was able to surrender a bit of the creative control on them and sort of see what direction the band took and what direction Leeroy took. I guess at heart we have rock leanings that prevail when it comes to that sort of stuff.”
You can catch Dave McCann for a solo performance at Legacy Guitar and Coffee House Saturday, Sept. 20 at 7 p.m.
