Empty Train review in the Winnipeg Free Press

David Francey
Empty Train (Laker Music)
AYRSHIRE, Scotland’s David Francey has been a Canadian citizen most of his life, but the 61-year-old still sings with the thick brogue of his native country.
That’s a good thing, since his type of folky tale-telling and heartfelt insights benefit from his deep, dusty cadence. Francey plays no instruments himself here, leaving his band, the Handsome Soldiers, to deliver the tuneful, rootsy vibes. Mandolin, banjo, acoustic guitar and the occasional fiddle finesse avoid cliché and contour Francey’s graceful lyrics perfectly. Within this framework, the singer’s words lay out the kind of wisdom gained not only by living a conscious life, but having the skill to turn sincere emotion into song. Hospital tells the tale of a son watching his father barely exist while in care and the toll it takes on the whole family. Blue Girl details a tormented slog through the porn industry, while Crucible lifts unknown soldiers to prominence. Empty Train succeeds because  Francey writes the kind of songs driven by personal experiences, yet speak to the larger life truths of compassion and sincerity. Get aboard this train.

— Jeff Monk
Winnipeg Free Press

David Francey So Say We All Review, The Province

DAVID FRANCEY: So Say We All Review by Posted by: Stuart Derdeyn, The Province

Scottish-born Francey has built a deserved reputation as one of Canada’s best singer’songwriters and he’s in particularly fine form on his ninth album. Blessed with one of those haggard-and-seductive voices that really gets under your skin, he covers a lot of ground – literally – on this 14 song collection. From stays at a Cheap Motel to rolling down the Long Long Road with Blue Skies, Blue Yonder and American Blues all popping up, he observes on the little things that uplift a downtrodden spirit time and time again. It’s a case of less-is-more in most of the songs as he sticks to vocals and guitar with occasional mandolin or banjo added in to keep as intimate as possible. Familiar though it may sound, it never falls into cliche which is hard to do in this genre.
(April 30, 2013)

David Francey So Say We All Review in Exclaim Magazine

By Kerry Doole

It can be argued that David Francey has had more impact than any old-school Canadian folk songsmith since the late great Stan Rogers. A late bloomer, he has now released ten albums that have deservedly won acclaim here (three Juno Awards) and beyond. So Say We All is one of his very best; it finds him digging deep, mining themes of depression, grief and unrequited love with genuine empathy. "These songs encompass what proved [to be] a very difficult year," he writes in the liner notes, though those tracks collected here range as far back as 1995. Some of the metaphors and locales (cheap motels, life as a road) are well worn, but it's a testimony to Francey's skill and always convincing vocal style that he can breathe new life into them. There is astute social commentary in "American Blues" ("and we run in the shadow of the power and the might") and "Bitterroot," but it's the songs forged from the soul that hit hardest. The vocal-only "Blue Yonder" (featuring Tannis Slimmon) and equally sparse closing title cut are amongst the highlights. As ever, the best players surround Francey, including string wizard Chris Coole, while the recording and mixing of Ken Friesen keep the sound clean, but never slick. This is another winner.

Original article

Late Edition - Velvet Rope Magazine

David Francey

I’ll start my first review off like this. David Francey’s music is not something I thought I would like. I’ve either grown as a person and have developed a greater appreciation for music as a whole or his music just managed to circumvent my expectations. Either way, it’s a good thing, because David Francey is a folk musician, and that’s not normally my thing at all. The closest I normally come to folk music is City and Colour.

The album I listened to is his 2011 release, The Late Edition. As I pressed play on my iPod I prepared myself for the…the…oh wait, this is kind of nice. This would be perfect background music for drinking, or a poker night, or sitting outside at night staring at the stars while smoking a cigar at the cottage. Or maybe just something a little more low key to get you through the daily 9-5 grind. The point is, I liked it. A lot actually. His music is comfortable, reminiscent and genuine.

The Late Edition has a nice flow to it in that it sounds unified but each song can stand on it’s own. It’s got some really mellow relaxing songs like Grateful and Borderlands as well as the very rock sounding I Live in Fear (I love this track).

I also love that I can pick up hints of his accent in his singing. You really just need to listen to it to appreciate it. I may just have to go back through his other 8 albums at some point. So ya, folk music, I’ve added it to my list. I’d high-five you if I could David Francey, well done.

If you’d like to learn more about David Francey, like him going from Carpenter to musician, check out these links:

www.davidfrancey.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Francey

http://www.myspace.com/davidfrancey

cheers,

Keith

Late Edition - Hour Community

"Since releasing his first album in 1999 at age 45, David Francey has released an album every couple of years or so, enjoying well deserved success in his middle age. The Scottish-Canadian singer-songwriter has won the Best Roots & Traditional Album Juno Award three times over the past decade and this new record could earn him a fourth, filled as it is with folk and country gems. Francey has a way of making you sit up and pay attention, enjoying the interesting turns of phrase he delivers in that distinctive voice and accent of his. Recorded in Nashville with Kieran Kane (banjo, guitar), Fats Kaplin (fiddle, mandolin), Richard Bennett (guitar, bouzouki) and Lucas Kane (drums), Late Edition offers plenty of good news."
for Hour Community by by Kevin Laforest

Late Edition - CBC New Brunswick

"12 cuts, only 2 of them over three minutes, and he gets everything he wants into each one. These are acoustic roots numbers, tasteful and full of hooks, flavoured with fiddle, banjo and mandolin"

CBC New Brunswick, Bob Mesereau

David Francey Interview: SXSW 2010

David Francey is a Scottish-born Canadian construction worker turned successful folk singer and songwriter. He began making music in 1999 with his first CD, 'Torn Screen Door.' Since then, he has won several Juno awards and garnered positive acclaim across Canada and throughout the world. In 2009, Francey released his eighth album, a collaboration with artist Mike Ford, titled 'Seaway.' Spinner recently interviewed Francey to learn more about his music and plans for SXSW 2010.

When did you start making music and performing?

I put the first CD out in 1999, but I still worked in construction up until the second CD won a Juno in 2002. So I started in 2002 full-time.

What inspired you to make the transition from construction work to music?

My wife Beth is pretty well the reason for it, to tell you the truth. She encouraged me to make the first CD. I wrote songs for years and years and didn't perform them. I just wrote them because I had to, and felt like I wanted to. Once I wrote them, I went on to the next one, and just had no plans for them at all. [Beth] was hearing them and thinking I should be doing something with them. She kind of made things happen for me really.

And I had the great good fortune in '98 of meeting a producer from the CBC who caught us at a show and couldn't believe we didn't have a CD. So he hooked us up with a very inexpensive studio, and we did the first record. That [CD] sort of crawled across the country all on its own and got some accolades. And I realized they're not too bad -- the songs. I knew all along, but I realized they might have some legs. Then the second album won the Juno, and that sort of sealed it for me.

How would you describe your sound, in your own words?

It's very simple and stripped down. What I've always preferred is just as few instruments as you can get away with, and lyrics that matter, and a melody that might stick in your head. I think that's really all I've ever wanted to do. I've played with other musicians and filled the sound out, and it's been wonderful, but the essence of the sound is a melody that might stick, an easily singable song and lyrics that matter.

What are your musical influences?

I've had quite a few over the years. Certainly, musically, it would be most of the Canadian singer-songwriters from the early '70s. You know, Bruce Cockburn and Joni Mitchell, Willie P. Bennett and all those Canadian guys. Also, John Prine. I really admire him an awful lot and listen a lot to him. And then from Britain, it would be Planxty. I really loved the music by Planxty from Ireland. They just opened up my head to melodies like nothing else -- Donal Lunney and Andy Irvine and those guys.

What is in your SXSW survival kit?

A good book and my camera, and that's about it. I travel fairly light, or I try to anyway. When I get somewhere, I like to take a little walk around and have a look at everything.

Do you prefer the Beatles or the Stones?

Ah, jeez, well you know, I think I would have to say the Beatles, because I listened to them before I listened to the Stones. You know, I love the Stones, but I 'd say the Beatles. I think their melodies are just unbeatable.

What's your musical guilty pleasure?

I listen to all kinds of music right across the board, but my guiltiest musical pleasure would probably be Avril Lavigne. I hear her on the radio a lot, and I think she's really great. I just like her songs. I find myself really liking the tunes, and I'm just thinking, "I shouldn't like this," but I do.

What do you consider to be your greatest accomplishment as an artist?

I think just to make a living in this industry. That's exactly what I started out to do. And I'm not saying it's a great living. It's not exactly a lucrative world of folk music. It's just making a living, as I set out to do. I worked construction and I was making a living at that and loved it. When I switched to this, it was a big move. And lo and behold, when Beth and I set out on it, I said, "As long as [we] make a living, gorgeous, we'll be good." And sure enough, we have. And so I think making any headway in this industry at all is a bit of an accomplishment. And I had a song of mine covered for Hockey Day in Canada. It's actually the theme song for that event. That's a huge thrill in my life. I should put that one down as the greatest thrill - -having that song 'Skating Rink' picked up for Hockey Day in Canada.

Where do you draw your musical inspiration from?

Just life in general, I think. A lot of the other songs are written about the things we used to talk about at work -- you know, roofing or flooring, or whatever we were doing. I think that's why the music has had some success -- because people could recognize themselves very easily in what I was writing about, because it's what everybody's going through, really.

So it's a universal message?

Well, my dad was [a] working man, you know -- a factory worker -- but he had this love of poetry. He just adored poetry and Robert Burns' poetry. So I got this sense that music and poetry were worth something in the world, and I'd like to think that it still is.

Mar 7th 2010 9:40AM by Jaime Owen for Spinner Canada

More great reviews for Right of Passage

David FranceyRight of Passage (Laker Music)

A lot of musicians wax rhapsodic about the vagabond life; David Francey knows better. A Scottish native and Canadian immigrant, Francey has buttered his bread as a rail worker, a carpenter, an ore carrier shipmate, and a Yukon bush wrangler. He’s also won Juno Awards and has written some of the best songs you’ll ever hear. “Ballad of Bowser McCrae” and “Promised Land” are spirited sea song/Celtic hybrids; whereas “Their Wedding Day” and “Under the Portland Weather” are deeply personal observations wrapped in intimate folk melodies. “New Jerusalem” stops you in your tracks by cutting through the faux piety of murder in the name of Yahweh or Allah. Every song on this album tells you that David Francey is a plebeian poet who can make the prosaic sublime.— Rob Weir,
The Valley Advocate


David Francey
Right of Passage
Laker Music

I guess, at this point in David Francey’s stellar career, we are down to expecting near perfection delivered with each succeeding album. Well…Right of Passage delivers the proverbial goods once again. Twelve new songs and, unexpectedly, one lovely tune delivered superbly by Geoff Somers on fiddle and mandolin and Craig Werth on guitar and bouzouki. David lends a hand, by droning the shruti box.

The songs range from a lovely portrait of one Bowser MacRae, the third mate on an Algoma Central ore carrier, to a song inspired from the TV news coverage of the Middle East. All are extremely well crafted from this observant, slightly melancholic, and gentle man. He sings from the heart, and the arrangements are simple but effective. I particularly liked Stone Town a portrait of Quebec City in the rain. I’ve been in Quebec City in the rain and he nails it.

So, all in all, another terrific effort from Mr. Francey. Did you really expect anything different? Les Siemieniuk, Penguin Eggs

Right of Passage

"Right of Passage is his finest work to date...another step in David Francey's journey as one of Canada's finest singer-songwriters.” Jan Vanderhorst, Just Us
Folk

Right of Passage **** David Francey (Laker Music) He's bound to stumble at some point, isn't he? But so far, Canadian folkster David Francey has hit the bull's eye every time he's headed into the studio. Right of Passage, the two-time Juno winner's newest collection, finds Francey spinning economical, evocative tales about turning points in life: leaving places, finally telling your girl you love her, confronting the ultimate turning point of death. For the most part a quiet, reflective album, it's rooted in the everyday, the songs' spare imagery that of rain, a garden gate, Quebec City's old stone walls. Francey, as always, excels at narrative, his warm Scottish burr welcoming the listener into his own life and that of his characters. Guitar, fiddle and restrained backing vocals are among Francey's accompanists.” Patrick Langston, Ottawa Citizen

“Thirteen short songs about life's transitional moments - written, for the most part, during his recent summer gig crewing on a Great Lakes ore carrier - bear all the Francey watermarks: lyrical economy, harmony-inducing melodies, wry humour with a hint of melancholy, intimate vocal performances and tasty accompaniment. This is classic Francey - personal, evocative, a work of considerable beauty” Greg Quill, Toronto Star