Gordie Tentrees will be running marathons during his marathon tour.
The Yukon-based roots artist, formerly of Haliburton, kicked off a five-month tour promoting his new disc, North Country Heart, in late July. He’ll play his last date Dec. 12 in Italy.
Tentrees plans to run a full marathon each month he’s on the road.
“I’ve run lots for years,” he said, but never 42 kilometres in one go.
Preparing for his fall jaunts can be tricky. On Aug. 3, Tentrees was dropped off 20 kilometres from his hotel in Nanton, Alta.
He jogged the rest of the way.
Cutting time down wasn’t a priority when Tentrees recorded North Country Heart. His fourth release, Mercy or Sin, opened doors with music industry contacts. It also earned a best roots album of the year nomination from Western Canadian Music Awards.
“I felt like the last album did a lot of neat things for me, that I’d always wanted to have happen,” said Tentrees.
“There was no expectations other than to make a good album and have fun doing it. It was nice to make an album where you didn’t have anything in the back of your mind that you wanted to see happen with the album when you were done.
“You just wanted to have a good album.”
Discs he released between 2004 and 2011 helped define “what kind of songwriter I was going to be.” 29 Loads of Freight offered listeners country, rockabilly, folk and blues. Bottleneck to Wire featured country, folk and blues.
“I think I’ve honed down to what kind of roots music artist I am as opposed to feeling things out like I’d done before in different genres,” said Tentrees.
“A whole bunch of things have come together on this album that weren’t apparent on the other albums as far as the musical side of it.”
He’s ready to throw concert-goers another curve ball during his current tour. Tentrees is travelling with a band that includes Roger Marin on guitar and, for part of the way, Sault Ste. Marie musician Rachelle Risling on bass.
Risling will join Tentrees for the tour from Sept. 3 to Oct. 12 with dates in Ontario, Alberta and more than a half-dozen states including Vermont, Michigan and California.
“She’s great. She’s amazing,” said Tentrees.
His tour includes hooking up with alternative country artist Fred Eaglesmith’s Tin Can Caravan Tour. The former Haliburton area resident has toured with Eaglesmith before and welcomes the chance to rub musical shoulders again.
“Playing with him has been great because he’s a really good example as an artist of not setting any boundaries or having any limits to what you’re doing as far as playing music,” said Tentrees.
“It’s really nice to see that, you know, for someone like me.”
Tentrees inked a publishing deal with Nashville-based Blue Water Music earlier this year.
He’s hoping the independent music publisher and publishing rights administrator will have success pitching his tunes to well-known artists.
“The potential of that could be really great,” said Tentrees.
“It’s a great thing to have help. I’ve had more help now than I’ve ever had. I feel really blessed that kind of stuff has been happening. It keeps getting better. I’m really curious to see what happens when I put this one out because I think it’s the strongest one I’ve done so far.”