Del Barber

Winnipeg native Del Barber's third album, Headwaters, has movement – every song bounces and pops, while some jump for joy. Even the slower tracks ("Believe Me," "Soul of the Land That's Mine") feel alive and restless. Any workaday songwriter can add a handclap here or a tambourine shake there, but few can sustain such a high energy level across a full album. Barber's commitment to holding listeners' interest goes a long way. He songwriting isn't groundbreaking, stitched as it is with the familiar patterns of country/folk music (opening line on "Love and Wine": "I met her in the shadow of an old white pine"), but what he lacks in originality he makes up for in spirit. Creativity, it's rarely said, can be a real drag – too much effort exerted to stand out from the pack can leave a songwriter drained when it comes time to write actual melodies and hooks. Barber doesn't have that problem; he recalls his heroes, from Townes Van Zandt ("The Right Side of the Wrong") to pre-Yankee Hotel Foxtrot Wilco ("Everything is Not Enough") freely, honestly trying to match their styles instead of subverting them. At a time when artists like Grizzly Bear and Joanna Newsom are trying to make folk music "challenging" for the first time in its history, it's good to see the simplest pleasures of a man with his guitar are still alive and well.