For Lennie Gallant, it’s all about the relationship with the audience.
“There’s nothing like the audience and the creative fire that you get from them. As long as the music is emotionally true and you’re having fun up there, it’s always fantastic,” Gallant says. “Last night, for example, when we launched Shelter from the Storm, the energy was just off the charts.”
That energy is born from Gallant’s style of emotional and poetic storytelling that have been described as “true slices of life, delivered with a poet’s flair and a rugged, emotional, sensibility”.
“I'm actually toying with the idea of putting together an album called Short Stories, a sort of compendium of sorts,” Gallant says.
And, as you might expect, Gallant has a lot of stories to tell.
“One time I got a call from someone who I didn’t immediately recognize. Turns out it was Jimmy Buffet, who I’d known well years before, but it had been years, and I didn't know it was him. He said he wanted to do an album with me, and I almost blew him off, thinking it was just someone who’d gotten my number,” Gallant says. “Luckily, it worked out in the end.”
Then there was the time his music went to outer space.
“I was told that (astronaut) Julie Payette was taking a CD of my music (the album, When We Get There) into space to the International Space Station,” Gallant says. “My album orbited the earth 248 times and when (Payette) became Governor General, I was invited to a reception where she presented me with the CD, signed by the crew, along with a photo of my CD floating beside her with the earth in the background.”
It was a fitting gift for an artist whose belief in the enduring human capacity for dealing with turbulent times through connection, love and laughter has laid the foundation of his work.
“It’s an unfortunate thing that we’re going through some of the things going on now, but I really don’t get involved in politics,” Gallant says. “Instead, I write songs, and some are about social justice but it’s really more a process of storytelling. Still, it’s always amazing when I get a note from a fan telling me how some line in one of my songs has affected them.”
Gallant’s journey began early in life when, at 13 years of age, he got his first guitar.
“I got this guitar and had learned all of three chords before I was trying to write my first song,” he recalls. ‘it’s really always been a part of who I am.”
His innate ability to weave music into our lives has won Gallant more honours and awards than most musicians will see in a lifetime. His song, Peter’s Dream, was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame and his 15 albums of original songs have won him a plethora of awards and nominations including the JUNOs, Les Prix Éloizes and The ECMAs.
Gallant has performed internationally and shared the stage with a host of orchestras as well as performers such as Lucinda Williams, Patti Griffin and Roger Hodgson.
And, in case that isn’t impressive enough in its own right, Gallant has also been awarded The Order of Canada, recognized for his astounding talent as well as his humanitarian efforts.
Gallant will be appearing at the Old Church Theatre in Courtenay on July 22 and at the Mary Winspeare Centre in Sidney on Friday, July 25.
For tickets and more information, visit lenniegallant.com/shows.
