Barbers in the barn

Jill and Matthew Barber play matinee concert at Chadsey’s

It was a slow day at By Chadsey’s Cairns vineyard some 10 years ago, and Richard Johnston was bored with the music playing in the tasting room. Nobody had come in for a while, so he quickly went to the house and picked up a handful of CDs. Two of them were by Jill Barber, and he put one in the CD player. Just then a car drove in. “An older guy and a younger person came to the barn, and took ages in there,” says Johnston. “They finally came in, and the guy said, ‘Oh, you like that music?’ and I said ‘Do you know her?’ and he said ‘It’s my daughter,’ and she said, ‘Yes, that’s me.’ She said she’d been taking her time in the barn because she thought it would be a great venue. And I said we could make that happen.” The following year Jill and her brother, Matthew, held their first concert in the barn and they have been back every summer since, juggling their hectic touring and recording schedule to make it happen. On Sunday, they celebrated their 10th concert in the barn with a matinee performance for close to 140 people.

Jill Barber performs in the barn at By Chadsey’s Cairns.

The large barn, with its lofty roof and relatively cool interior proved an ideal location for a summer concert, and the ready availability of a bottle of chilled rosé was a definite advantage. A semicircle of hay bales provided seating in front of the stage, with rows of chairs on either side. Jill and Matthew were joined on stage by Julian Brown on bass and Dean Stone on drums. The slatted wooden walls and high roof helped to create a warm, resonant timbre to the sound inside the barn. The concert was a very casual affair, with the scheduled start time having only a passing acquaintance with promptness, and both Jill and Matthew refilling their wine glasses while on stage. They opened the concert with songs from their Juno award-winning The Family Album, providing little vignettes on why they chose those tunes, or how they had written them. Many of the songs touched on themes of love and the family, with Jill singing Big Picture Window about her young family’s home in Vancouver, and Matthew singing True Believer, a song he performed at Jill’s wedding. “It’s kind of gospel-inspired,” he says. “And it feels good to sing it in a church, or in a barn for that matter.” Jill also sang her hit song Never Stop Loving You, which as it turned out was the first-dance song for a couple there who were celebrating their third anniversary, and which they recreated by dancing in front of the barn.

Jill closed off the concert with a couple of her very upbeat songs, Oh My My, with a subtle change in the lyrics that added a touch of empowerment, and then the anthemic Girl’s Gotta Do that had people of all ages up and dancing.

After releasing new albums last year, both Jill and Matthew have been touring, but they both made time for this concert. Touring has been a fact of life for both these singer/songwriters over the past 15 years of their careers, although the pace has been somewhat reduced for Jill now that she is the mother of two young children. “I love to be on the road and I love to be touring and playing shows,” she says. “This is my favourite thing, playing music and looking out and seeing people, beautiful faces, who are interested in being part of an afternoon of music. I still tour—I’ve got to take a break from the kids every once in a while,” she adds with a smile.

For Johnston, these concerts have become an integral part of the winery, and he is very happy that Matthew and Jill have made the effort to appear every year. “It’s wonderful, and I think they are two of the best singer/songwriters, and we’ve watched their family grow up,” he says. “We’ve got to know their parents better, and it’s just a very special time for both our families.” Matthew Barber say it always feels like he’s coming home when he gets to do these concerts. “Richard and Vida are such warm hosts here at Chadsey’s, and we look forward to it every year. It’s a beautiful place to put on a show.”