Window On The West Performers

Barry Luft and Tim Rogers

Barry Luft and Tim Rogers tell western Canada’s story through song.  Their lively performances provide a unique glimpse into the experiences of homesteaders, railroaders, ranchers, and more, as they forged this great region of our country.  The triumphs and tribulations of these early pioneers come to life through songs sung at the time, as well as some written after the fact to celebrate the Canadian west.

Barry and Tim have a combined 80 years of performing experience in Alberta, as well as on stages across Canada and the northwestern United States.  Their clean, acoustic performances are crafted to bring historical content to the fore.  In 1983 they released an LP entitled “Songs of the Iron Trail:  The Canadian Railroad Experience in Song,” a multiple award winning album, which emerged as a pioneer in the Canadian heritage music movement. Since the album’s re-release as a CD in 2007, Barry and Tim have been performing western Canadian music in numerous outlets including folk clubs and festivals, the Glenbow Museum and the Calgary Stampede.

Barry is a multi-instrumental performer (banjo, guitar, autoharp, harmonica), currently working as a full time singer and musician.  He has released two solo CDs (www.barryluft.com).  Tim is a writer and researcher in Canadian musical traditions who also plays guitar and sings (www.irontrail.ca).  Together, they offer a potpourri of Canadian music that paints a vibrant portrait of the emergence of the west in the Canadian imagination.  In a sense, their music is a throwback to the days of the folk music revival (“we’re old fashioned and proud of it,” they’ve been heard to say).  But in this music, that does such a great job preserving the local and the Canadian, there is something that transcends current trends and dips into that great font of shared experience.

This is the old Canadian folk music revival at its best, and isn’t it worth listening to!  (Shelley Posen in Canadian Folk Music, 42.1, 2008).

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