Album Notes

In spite of the fact that Barlow has chosen to live in remote northern Canada, she finds ways to get out, touring from her home-base in Whitehorse, Yukon. Her first release on the Caribou Records label, "Humminah", landed her performances at the Winnipeg, Stan Rogers, and Ottawa Folk Festivals, and many other events across Canada. Her sophomore album, "Gingerbread", was nominated for a Juno Award in the Roots/Traditional category in 2002, and took her to the UK, as well as the Calgary and Vancouver Folk Festivals. Her newest release, "luckyburden", is a concept album focusing on the lives of ruggedly eccentric people in Keno City, Yukon. In 2005 it was released on the Shock Records label in Australia, and she toured there in March of that year and plans to return in 2007. She is currently working on a new collection of songs on the theme of Love, Death and Horses.

Luckyburden is a collection of songs about work, love and mixed blessings in Keno City, centre of Yukon silver mining from 1914 - 1989. People immigrated from all over the world to make their lives in the remote northern mining town perched high in the Gustavus Range, 400 km north of Whitehorse.
This album is an enhanced CD with a six minute documentary by Andrew Connors featuring footage from the Snack Bar Sessions in Keno City, B roll footage from the weekend recording in Keno, establishing shots in and around the town, as well as some amazing archival footage of the mine. Two live tracks appear on the album, with the balance recorded at Old Crow Recording studio all under the production/engineering of Bob Hamilton. 


“…Barlow’s luckyburden disc, which features songs written about the denizens of a former silver mining town in the Yukon, is one of the best folk concept albums since Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska.” -Straight Choices, Georgia Straight/March 31, 2005

"Barlow is at her best when giving free reign to her marvelous imagination and hybrid approach to construction and phrasing. A fine vocalist with unmistakeable traces of Joni Mitchell in her delivery, Barlow really shines as a lyricist." - Hank Davis, Goldmine Magazine.

"Humour, lust, and empathy are the themes that run through Barlow’s songs; living in an environment where you can die if you wear the wrong clothes seems to have impressed her with a sense of life’s fleeting fragility." - Alexander Varty, The Georgia Straight.

"Kim Barlow's CD is the most heavily played CD to come into our office this year." - Pierre Guerin, Artistic Director of the Winnipeg Folk Festival and President of the North American Folk Alliance, 1999.