Barney Bentall is the first person to admit he’s led a pretty incredible life — a Juno Award-winning music career and an eye-opening decade ranching, all the while raising four children and welcoming a passel of grandkids.
Much like the singing cowboy of yesteryear, Bentall is tied to the land and he’s created an extension of himself that, over time, has put a new face on the country-folk-roots scene.
He is the driving force behind Barney Bentall and the Grand Cariboo Opry, a generational variety show of Canada’s finest musicians, and they’re making a stop at the Arden Theatre on Thursday, Oct. 21.
“It’s full of life. The music takes you on a journey — gospel, old-time country and rock. The mood migrates all over the place. There’s a mix of music and storytelling and it taps into a time long ago,” says Bentall.
Back in the 1990s the Vancouver-based Barney Bentall and the Legendary Hearts were a staple of Canadian rock radio, producing platinum singles such as Something to Live For, Come Back to Me and House of Love.
But in 1997 after their last album, Till Tomorrow, they quietly disbanded as Bentall took a long break to work at his ranch in B.C.’s Cariboo region.
In the town of Clinton, just a stone’s throw from his ranch, a May ball had been an ongoing affair for 140 years. “I started a band and we got involved fundraising and we did rodeos and dances.”
Throwing a few microphones and amps on stage, Bentall invited people to sing songs and tell stories in good old-fashioned bluegrass way.
“The opry evolved into a country and western show with a rock and roll set. Everybody had such a good time and it was an awakening to the joys of music.”
The Grand Cariboo Opry was formalized in 2007 as Bentall put the show on the road for a huge fundraiser in Vancouver’s impoverished East Side. “It kept rolling from there.”
Backed by his old friends The Legendary Hearts, the Arden gig also boasts beat-poet country singer Ridley Bent and rustic troubadour son Dustin Bentall.
“Technology today allows so many more people to make music and it’s hard for a young individual to get noticed. I feel fortunate that I can go out and play and provide an opportunity for less established artists through the Grand Cariboo Opry.”
