Jill Barber to bring music to Osprey

The Osprey Arts Centre presents popular songstress Jill Barber on Thursday, Nov. 6, at 8 p.m. A confirmed romantic, singer/songwriter Barber has just released a new CD, her third, called Chances, which has been hailed as a return to the ballad tradition of an earlier time.

Barber’s sultry voice has been compared to Edith Piaf, Etta James and Patsy Cline. She picks up the torch where it was left in the golden age of song.

Since appearing at the Osprey three years ago, Barber has received multiple East Coast Music Awards and several Juno nominations. She was honoured last year to be invited to sing with the Symphony Nova Scotia in their Pop series, where she wowed audiences with the orchestral versions of her songs.

About her songs, Barber says, “I am drawn to write about love because it is a theme for the ages. Romance seems to have gone out of style in much of modern music. I like to think of myself as a hopeful romantic, rather than a helpless one.”

Several of her new songs were co-written with famed singer/songwriter Ron Sexsmith, an experience she found daunting at first but in the end had so much fun doing it that she forgot to be afraid.

This may be the area’s last chance to hear Barber’s voice in the near future, as she has recently moved from Halifax to Vancouver to follow her romantic dreams.

Tickets for her Osprey show are $23.50, available at the Whirligig.