East Coast Music Award-winning artist Keith Mullins has shown us a classic example of what to do when life gives you lemons; you hunker down in your backyard and construct a barn for your fledgling recording studio. Today we’re seeing the fruits of his labour, with the release of not just one, but three albums under the umbrella of Barn Bhreagh.
Barn Bhreagh, for those not fluent in Gaelic, means “fine barn,” which is, in fact, a very direct reference to the new 12×16 structure that adorns Mullins’ backyard in Baddeck. It had always been a long-term goal of Mullins to build a studio of his own, but the events of the last year have expedited that goal into something more immediate.
“I had lost an across Canada tour, a major gig with Sobey’s, a European tour, a bunch of festivals, and a bunch of school gigs,” says Mullins. “At one point I thought it was the end of my musical career. I had been playing an average of three to four gigs a week and it all ended with COVID.”
Already in possession of some choice boutique recording gear, and the experience of having produced all of his own albums, Mullins ducked off to the back with the intention of putting his dreams in motion. He spent every day from June to September last year putting together the structure.
“My cousin, Gordie Sampson, is my studio guru,” jokes Mullins. “I just ask him what he uses.”
While it took a few months to prepare the Barn Bhreagh studio, Mullins set out with a project already in mind. He tapped three artists, Morgan Toney, Isabella Samson, and Jesse Cox for a Barn Bhreagh supergroup; sharing the name of the studio and performing as the backing band for each other on their individual albums.
“[They’re] all super talented and hard-working,” says Mullins, who fit met Toney, Samson, and Cox through Mullins’ successful grant-writing mentorship program with the Cape Breton Music Industry Cooperative.
“That gave me something to work with and a few months work. The artists would take song ideas to me and I would ‘trim the fat’, so to speak. I would just be devil’s advocate and try different options and find things that the artist like that fit within the vision of their record, or we would write songs from scratch keeping in mind the vision for each record.”
It was Morgan Toney who Mullins first took on and who, in turn, really inspired him to construct the studio.
The 21-year-old Mi’kmaq singer-songwriter and fiddler comes from Wagmatcook First Nation. With a love for the classic sound of a Cape Breton reel combined with the influences of his Mi’kmaq roots —called Mi’kmaltic—Toney’s music blew Mullins away.
Toney’s album, First Flight, features the leading single, “Sit No’kmaq,” which sounds like a traditional sea shanty met the blues and beefed up its percussion section. It’s Toney’s fiddle that really steals the show though.
“I have never heard anyone like him,” says Mullins. “He was playing the fiddle and singing old Mi’kmaq traditional tunes at the same time. It blew my mind.”
Mullins first met Isabella Samson when she was 13 and was impressed by her ability to sing perfectly in key at all times. Now, at the age of 16, her coming-of-age album, If It’s Not Forever, features cowrites with some of Atlantic Canada’s celebrated songwriters, including Mullins, Kellie Loder and Jordan Coaker, plus a contribution of string from Colin Grant on “Distantly Close.”
The third artist is Jesse Cox, of Northern Cape Breton, who has put aside his day job as a fisherman to pick up a guitar and brings with it a lot of grit. Mullins describes him as an unbelievable songwriter and an undiscovered gem, and if that’s not enough on its own, his album Threshing Floor, has been reinforced by the likes of Shaun Verreault (Wide Mouth Mason) and Gordie Johnson (Big Sugar).
“Our vision for him was to create a Peaky Blinders soundtrack,” says Mullins of Cox’s alt country album.
Despite releasing three albums in a single day, Mullins says the change in roles has pleasantly brought about a more relaxed pace of life he can really get into. He may have had to trade in the limelight for the moment, but his new commute makes it all sound worth it.
“I’m loving it. I knew I would eventually burn out playing over 250 gigs a year pre-COVID,” says Mullins. “Now, I don’t have to put 50-80k a year on my car. I wake up, make a coffee and walk to work in my stretchy pants.”
Barn Bhreagh will be performing a combined celebration of their album releases, with a COVID-friendly live stream on May 22, 2021 at 7:00PM. More details to come.