Multi Juno award winning singer-songwriter David Francey is headlining the Sensational Songwriters showcase during the Coldsnap Music Festival at the Playhouse Thursday, Jan. 30.
Sharing the stage is Twin Flames, a duo singing in English, Inuktitut and French and Limelight Quest winner Sam Holden from Vanderhoof.
Born in Ayrshire, Scotland, to parents who were factory workers, Francey moved to Canada at 12 years old.
As Francey spent decades working in Canadian rail yards, construction sites and in the bush of the Yuko,n he'd always be creating his songs in his head as he worked.
Francey is known as a folk singer who documents the working person's life. His first album Torn Screen Door was released in 1999 and was a Canadian hit. Now, 11 albums, three Junos and several other awards later, he's making his way to the Prince George Coldsnap stage.
Francey, known for his emotion-evoking lyrics and blood-stirring melodies, talks about the process.
"I get the lyric and melody at the same time and if I'm moved I write," he said. "I don't write from a standing position, if my heart's not moved one way or the other - happiness, sadness, anger, whatever it is - joy - then nothing happens."
Francey's latest video posted on his website is for his song Rain and it's about losing his best friend way too soon.
"We had big plans for a fun retirement," Francey said. "We used to work carpentry together."
One of the most poignant lyrics in the song is 'heart breaks like a window pane.'
"It was my friend's passing that really set that up," Francey explained. "I wanted to do him justice and I love him to this day. It's been many years but not a day goes by that I don't think of him. I just wanted to write something that is a wee bit of tribute."
Now the audience knows Rain's back story and can listen to the performance at the Playhouse with an insightful perspective.
Francey said he'll perform a variety of songs on Jan. 30.
"I never ever just play what the new record is, I always delve way back and pick up whatever I feel like playing," Francey said. "Some people have been fans for a long time because the records are quite old now, right? But the songs I think are just as vital as the day I wrote them or I wouldn't sing them. As long as they're ringing for me I figure they'll ring for the audience and there's a lot of people who like to hear the songs I've written in the past and sing along with them. I like to take that into consideration as well as singing some new songs as well."
Francey remembers Prince George fondly and recalls a time in his youth when he hitched a ride from Prince Rupert to P.G. and because the driver was so erratic it gave him a new appreciation for the town.
"I'd never been so happy to see a place in my life," Francey laughed. "Ah, the crazy things we do in our youth. So I'm looking forward to the Coldsnap Festival and being part of it. At first I thought Prince George in February? But why not Prince George in February? If you let the weather stop you, you'll sit in your house and do nothing so why not get out and enjoy what the town has to offer? And I've been checking it out and it looks like a helluva lineup."
The show starts at 7:30 p.m. at the Playhouse on Thursday, Jan. 30.
Tickets and information for all the Coldsnap shows can be found at www.coldsnapfestival.com.
