Sometimes, inspiration strikes in the strangest of places. According to three-time Juno Award nominee Del Barber, his new tune, “Still Got You,” flashed before his eyes while he was taking a leak outside one night on his little farm in western Manitoba. “The stars looked like they were crammed in the sky like sardines, the wolves were howling, cows were bawling,” Barber remembers. “I had my dog Fischer next to me. I realized how lucky I was to have this life; the simplicity, the isolation, all of it.” Seemingly surrounded by darkness in every facet of the outside world, Barber felt like his was on a little self-made island, away from the shouting and chaos of it all. “My partner Haylan and I were building a life on the fringes of it all and I was in love with it and proud of what we had,” he says. However, with those feelings of love and thankfulness came guilt. “I had privileges so many didn’t have and I wanted to do right by them. And I knew there’d be some consequences from looking away from the world as often as we liked.”
Premiered by The Bluegrass Situation, each verse of “Still Got You” reflects the juxtaposition of Barber’s retreat and the things he’s shielded himself from—or possibly missing out on—with lines like: “They've got just cause and they're rallyin' in the streets / I'm just pruning my tomatoes and pulling out the weeds.” But the repeated refrain of the song is this simple: “The whole world goes to shit and I've still got you.”
“Still Got You” opens up with a bouncy, finger-picked guitar supporting Barber’s easily approachable vocals; warm and inviting and jumping right into the story. A few more instruments ease their way in before the song’s groovy one-two feel gives way to a half time beat that challenges listeners not to bob their heads along the way. Barber’s delivery and the good time vibes of the song’s instrumentation provide a light balance to the song's lyrical content—the same kind of uplifting feeling that the writing process brought to its writer. “This song was written slowly over a few months,” recalls Barber. “Whenever the idea for it came up I’d casually add to the piece. It was a simple effort, a calming process that I used to choose to celebrate doing the small things well, seeing the good in my life, leaning into it and finding peace in shutting out the world from time to time.”
Fans can stream or purchase “Still Got You” today at this link, and check out an in-studio performance video of the song right here. “Still Got You” is the first taste of Barber’s upcoming album, Almanac—coming out Spring 2023 via acronym Records. For more info, including tour dates, please visit delbarber.com.
