A song about a favourite bartender in a southern Texas establishment has become Canadian singer/songwriter Sarah Burton’s clever, creative and wonderfully fun way of reminding a locked down world to remember better times, and that they will soon be returning.
Logan is available through Burton’s website and other streaming platforms, and was written while the extensively travelled troubadour was ensconced near the little Texas town of Terlingua last year, as part of a wandering musical existence that has seen the Ontario-born artist travel wherever her music – and audience demand – led her.
“Logan is the name of a bartender who bartended every Saturday that I played at this little bar on the Mexican border for a couple of years. We made a good team, so I wrote a song for him, and I used to play it for him and also decided to record it as a stand-alone single. I would play the song and get the audience to sing along every night. He loved it. He’s really excited and I think he always wanted to be canonized in a song,” said Burton from her home in Vancouver where she is riding out the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The song really has nothing to do with the pandemic. In fact, I was worried about putting it out now because of the pandemic because it’s a song about hanging out in bars, which we can’t do right now. But I am seeing it differently now. After talking to other people about it everybody wants to think about the good times they’ve had in bars and its sort of a hopeful song about the future, so I decided to put it out now.”
Burton has been a working musician and singer/songwriter since 2006, averaging around 150 shows a year. Needless to say, she will not be playing 150 shows this year, and it’s hard to say with the lingering impact of Covid what the ‘new normal’ for a touring artist will look like. With that in mind, Burton has chosen to continue to be creative.
“In the wake of the changing nature of the industry and the cost of producing full albums and now the impact of not touring, I just want to put music out. So, I am going to keep putting music out there one song at a time, as I can afford to. I have another stand-alone song coming in September that has quite a different vibe. It’s more Americana and fits in more with my previous album [her fifth in all, Give Me What I Want] which is more Americana than Indie rock. I guess Logan is more in line with the more Indie rock side of some of my other albums,” she explained, adding that she enjoyed her time living and touring in Texas.
“This particular bar was on a golf resort, so people would come mostly from east Texas and sometimes from other places, including from all over the world. But more of the clientele was from Houston, Dallas, Austin or Midland – Midland or course being like the Fort MacMurray of Texas. The place was a really beautiful setting. The golf course is on the Texas side but then you look over into Mexico. It’s almost like an oasis in the desert. The Rio Grande is nearby so there’s water coming through, and beautiful wildflowers and cactus, and an incredible mountain range nearby, so it’s quite beautiful and inspiring.
“It sits right next to a town called Terlingua which was made quietly famous by [country singer] Jerry Jeff Walker. He’s got a [live] album called Viva Terlingua, and it’s a really interesting place. There’s everything from beautiful adobe houses with the clay roofs to dilapidated but funky looking trailers and DIY homes. There’s a lot of people living off the grid, with solar panels and water tanks, and it’s also got a vibrant scene. In Terlingua there’s a venue called The Starlight and normally they have music there almost every night, even though its just a tiny town of like 100 people. It’s a great place to live, I think. There’s river rafting, lots of hiking, biking, and a surprising amount of night life because of the tourism. The resort is the kind of place you come and stay for a weekend or a week’s vacation, so people do come there to let loose. When you’re playing at the hotel bar, you know nobody’s driving anywhere. You get a lot of hard working people who are maybe getting a weekend away, so they’re there to have fun. And it was the job of Logan and me to just help them have fun.”
Like many musical road warriors, Burton learned a long time ago that the serving staff and bar staff at venues you performed in were critical to your success. In part, the song is a tribute to all of them who she has known and befriended over the years.
“Other than music, the other industry that I’ve worked in consistently in the service industry, and I’ve done my share of serving and bartending. I have always felt like our business and theirs is one in the same. When I am on tour, I see the staff of the venue as my co-workers for the night. And the best thing that we can do is support one another, because we’re all there to have a good time while we’re making a living and there to help other people have a good time. So, I just want to make it as fun as possible and I think it’s important for everybody to remember that we’re in this together, the patrons too. We’ve all decided to share this space for a few hours,” she said.
“Logan is great because, probably more than any other bartender I’ve known, we really clicked, because we had so many nights working together, we were able to develop a great rapport. I would make a joke from stage and he would answer it from the bar, it was so much fun. I think it’s a relationship that is kind of symbiotic and we’re all on the same level, all working the same night for the same goal. So, it is my ode to bartenders and servers. We need each other. Well, I certainly know I need them, I don’t know if they need me as much. Although having live music in your venue means something is happening and it’s a little different than the ordinary where it’s just a DJ or background music or something.
“As well, in certain parts of the live music industry and definitely in 100 per cent of the service and bartending industry, you rely on tips to make a good living. The better time that I have when I go out, the more money I am going to pill out of my pocket. That’s why I say we’re in the business of creating good times. And even when I’m not working in a bar or venue, I will still be going to one, and I miss that relationship too. I think a lot of people have that person in maybe a coffee shop or a bar, who knows your order. It’s like the whole Cheers thing – you want to go where everybody knows your name, and it’s a special thing. It’s a special thing having a local spot where somebody just knows that little thing about you that just helps brighten your day. I guess my point is that being part of a scene in a community, in a venue or a bar or restaurant or what have you, is important.”
Burton is cautiously optimistic that once the Covid restrictions are relaxed further, that live music will flourish as people realize what they’ve missed and how much music, as well as other forms of creative expression such as film, video, and books have helped them through these troubled times.
“It’s kind of painfully ironic that the people the most financially hurt by the situation are the ones creating the things that people need the most and are turning to the most in a time of strife. Even people who haven’t lost their jobs and are doing pretty well, even they are reporting more general feelings of sadness and deep depression about what’s going on right now, and they are turning to music and movies and books. So, it’s obviously important. But, honestly, I thought the music industry was hard before, and now I am laughing at myself,” she said.
“Maybe people are going to be hungry enough and appreciative enough to really start valuing live music. But what’s going to be enough to make a go of it? I know for me to make a good living I was playing 150 shows a year. And after having to cancel 50 shows, I have put a hold on booking anything else for the rest of the year. I am very hesitant to even think about booking shows. Even if it is valued more, there are probably going to be restrictions for a while yet, so do I now have to play 300 shows at half capacity to make the same living? I am not really that eager to go out and work for half the money. It was hard enough beforehand.
“I do think that one of the difficulties of this time right now is that artists are so deeply affected by this financially, so deeply to the point where we need to think about finding other ways to make a living. And yet, there’s also so much to write about. It’s all I want to do – to write. But I am very concerned about how I am going to make a living. So, I am dealing with this inner struggle. Do I retrain in a new field so I can survive, or do I hope that I can sort of go back to my normal job of playing music, and hope that I can sell more streams or more merch or whatever? That said, if during this time even if one person discovers a new artist its work it because it’s all about word of mouth. It’s contagious and it’s the organic reach that we all need. We need real people to be interested and to follow us and share and purchase and tell people. That’s how we’re going to survive these days.”
For more information on Burton, the single Logan and forthcoming music, visit www.sarahburton.ca.
- Jim Barber is a veteran award-winning journalist and author based in Napanee, ON, who has been writing about music and musicians for nearly 30 years. Besides his journalistic endeavors, he now works as a communications and marketing specialist. Contact him at jimbarberwritingservices@gmail.com.
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