Murray McLauchlan performing in Brandon on Sunday

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This article was published 20/10/2018 (2623 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Canadian music icon Murray McLauchlan is excited to visit Brandon, bringing years of musical experience with him in a one-night-only concert.

McLauchlan was first introduced to guitar as young man, when his brother purchased the instrument to impress a girl, warning McLauchlan to not touch it.

“I was all over it,” McLauchlan said with a mischievous chuckle.

Since then, the musician has released 19 albums and received 11 Juno Awards.

McLauchlan’s prowess with the instrument has grown other the years, with his decades of experience playing the guitar morphing his playing into more of a natural instinct.

“I don’t really think about it,” he said. “It just comes very naturally.”

Music is both a part of his identity and one of his chief passions. Taking a break from touring for approximately six years, McLauchlan came to realize that it was not enough to simply write music, but that he needed to get out and play it for other people.

“Otherwise, you have no idea if what you’re doing is working or not,” McLauchlan said. “It’s a communicative art.”

With his latest release, “Love Can’t Tell Time,” McLauchlan has developed a new language to playing guitar.

Prior to releasing his latest album “Love Can’t Tell Time” the artist spent time living in Italy with his wife, where he learned the art of “shell voicing.” McLauchlan’s access to this new language of guitar opened up a fresh style to playing music.

“It’s a gateway to being able to play Jazz,” McLauchlan said.

Once comfortable with that method of playing, McLauchlan set out to record a selection of songs he had been working in the flavour of the American Songbook.

Going into a recording studio McLauchlan set out to give them a new treatment, using only guitar, vocal and upright base to see how it worked — a style he kept for the recording of “Love Can’t Tell Time.”

“I recorded, just for fun, three standards … The upshot was I like what I had done so much I thought; ‘Well, it will be a record,’” McLauchlan said.

Working to create a natural recording style reminiscent of the 40s and 50s, McLauchlan sat on a stool with a 1938 acoustic guitar and a large U87 tube mike with an upright base a few feet away when they recorded.

This style marks the second time McLauchlan has created an album in this manner.

Recording the album McLauchlan came to see a strong current of positivity and a celebration of the second half of his life.

“It’s a journey of enrichment towards becoming an elder,” McLauchlan said.

His favourite songs on the album were written with good friends. The songs written with Alison Gordon, a noted journalist, are especially meaningful for McLauchlan. The partnership came into being after Gordon questioned the difficulty of writing a song. McLauchlan challenged her assertion and the two began writing together.

“It was a brilliant experience,” McLauchlan said. “She brought a perspective that I don’t think I would have.”

Gordon cowrote the title track of “Love Can’t Tell Time.” She passed away a few years ago and McLauchlen still misses her. Playing the songs they wrote together serves as a way as remembering her each time.

It can be difficult to craft sets for concerts given his extensive song collection, and McLauchlen works to balance what he thinks people want to hear with some of his newer works, but he also likes to introduce audiences to songs they may not have heard.

“I like to try and put together some kind of an emotional flow,” McLauchlan said. “My goal is that people are going to be a little more different when they walk out.”

The music icon is not sure what the future holds.

After his run of solo concerts, McLauchlan will be hitting the stage with his music group “Lunch At Allen’s” in December. Never one to plan things too rigidly, he will be taking a step away from the spotlight to explore Vietnam.

“I’ve just done something interesting and now what seems to be coming out is these groovy little rockabilly tunes,” McLauchlan said. “So I have no idea what to expect.”

McLauchlan will be playing at the Westman Manitoba Centennial Auditorium on Sunday at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $47.50.

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