Eli Barsi | From the Canadian Prairies to Western Music Fame

Canadian singer-songwriter Eli Barsi has spent more than three decades building a respected career in Western roots, country, bluegrass, folk, gospel, and Americana music. Raised on a farm in southeastern Saskatchewan, Barsi developed her musical style from the traditions of prairie life and the Western lifestyle that continue to shape her songwriting today. A self-taught musician, vocalist, and yodeler, she eventually took her talents to Nashville to further develop her songwriting craft and music industry connections before launching a full-time independent career.

Known for her authentic Western storytelling and strong prairie influence, Eli has released numerous independent albums and built a loyal following throughout Canada and the United States. Her music has been featured on Canadian and international radio, and several of her videos have aired on CMT. She is especially recognized for blending traditional country themes with Western heritage and roots music.

Among her biggest career achievements is receiving the prestigious Wrangler Award for “Outstanding Western Composition” from the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum for her song “Portrait of a Cowgirl.” The award made her the first Canadian woman ever to receive the honor. The deeply personal song was written as a tribute to her mother and became one of the signature recordings of her career.

Additional awards and accolades include:

2× Saskatchewan Country Music Association (SCMA) Roots Artist of the Year
SCMA Roots Album of the Year
Multiple Alberta and U.S. Western Music Association honors
CCMA (Canadian Country Music Association) nominations
International recognition in Western heritage and roots music circles
Featured performer at major events including the Calgary Stampede

As a songwriter, Eli Barsi is best known for original compositions that celebrate ranch life, prairie culture, faith, family, and Western traditions. Notable songwriting credits and fan favorites include:

“Portrait of a Cowgirl”
“Canadian Air” (co-written with renowned Canadian cowboy poet Doris Daley)
“Farm Girl”
“Prairie Skies”
“Big Hat No Cattle”
“Country Music Was Made for Saturday Night”
“I See You Everywhere”
“Wild Flowers for Me”

Beyond music, Eli is also an accomplished painter, author, and entrepreneur. She operates the Prairie Girl Gallery & Gift Boutique in Saskatchewan and has become known for combining music, Western art, and storytelling into a uniquely authentic brand.

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🎵 In This Episode:
• Eli Barsi interview
• Singer Songwriter
• Canadian Artist
• Branson Missouri
• Nashville 
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Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:15

Out where the coyotes yip and cry, stout hearted pony on the fly, got the rolling hills before me, the prairie boot above, got a letter and a promise from the sweetheart that I love. I'm about the richest gal I know. Rhymin' the ranges as I go. All my silver's in the stardust, my gold's in the moon, all my treasures in the trail. I ride the love I'm seeing soon. Out where the wind blows free, I'm never forin' to leave. Wearing my heart upon my sleeve, I'm riding home to you.

SPEAKER_02 1:01

Hodle de o deo, o' la de he de o de o de o ay hoda, o'dalay, hoday hoda Blue shadows start to fall Moon lights canyon wall browse ringing, I'm ten feet tall, I'm riding home to you.

SPEAKER_03 1:47

I'm where the wind blows free, I'm never going to leave. Wear my heart upon my sleeve, I'm riding home to you.

SPEAKER_02 2:02

Hodle it o deo, huddle it dee.

SPEAKER_01 2:19

Awesome, awesome, awesome. Hey, thank you so much. Hey, welcome to Musical Miles Podcast. I'm your host, Byron Duffin, and I am here with our guest today, Eli Barcy.

SPEAKER_03 2:29

Hi there.

SPEAKER_01 2:29

Thank you for joining us.

SPEAKER_03 2:30

You are so welcome. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 2:32

I'm gonna have the invite one up and hold it if you would.

SPEAKER_03 2:35

I would love to.

SPEAKER_01 2:35

And uh so Eli is we're here in Arizona at Wickenberg at the Art of the Cowgirl.

SPEAKER_03 2:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:41

It's a really neat event, right?

SPEAKER_03 2:42

What a great event.

SPEAKER_01 2:43

Have you been here before?

SPEAKER_03 2:44

I haven't. This is my first time, and I'm blown away. I'm so impressed.

SPEAKER_01 2:48

Yeah, there's so much to see and do, and the music is spot on. We got to see you play day before yesterday, uh, play a couple sets and hear your music and got to hear you play some original stuff and some yodling stuff. Tell us about that song you just played.

SPEAKER_03 3:02

That song's called Riding Home to You. It's a co-write with my girlfriend Doris Daly. She's a cowboy poet from up Alberta Way. I'm a Saskatchewan gal, and I like to uh when it comes to songwriting, I I like to um when it goes comes to the Western and cowboy music that I write, I like to dig deep and I like to try and write songs that sound like they were written a long time ago. And if I can sneak in a yodel, that's great too. Uh just because I think the the uh well the somebody asked my husband that yodeling thing, that's a dying art.

SPEAKER_01 3:36

It it truly is.

SPEAKER_03 3:37

And he said, no, it just sounds that way. So hopefully not.

SPEAKER_01 3:43

But but the reality of it is that there's not very many artists that yodel anymore. Yes. And you know, we you asked me earlier if we'd had anybody yodel, and I told you yes, that we'd had Wiley on the the episode before. I had an interview with Wiley and Elko. But the cool thing about that is that uh Wiley said it really opened some doors for him. One uh it opened some doors for him in Southern California when he was a young artist and really getting his feet under him and and uh performing, but it also made him a lot of money because he did the Yahoo Yodel. Uh-huh. If anybody remembers that.

SPEAKER_03 4:19

That's a story.

SPEAKER_01 4:20

Yeah, that's a story that that uh built him an indoor arena called the Yodel Barn or whatever. Probably Yodel Dome, I think it was. Or they excuse me, the Yahoo Dome.

SPEAKER_02 4:30

There you go.

SPEAKER_01 4:30

The Yahoo Dome. But uh anyway, he said his ex-wife ended up with that. So, but nonetheless, he's what a talented guy. And yeah, and and yodeling is such a cool deal. Thank you. It's fun that you don't you just don't hear it.

SPEAKER_03 4:44

No, and you can't yodel sad, you can only yodel happy. There you go. It's kind of like the banjo. You know, people think it's maybe a little on the corny side, the yodeling thing, but it's gonna make you smile, whether you dig it or not.

unknown 4:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:55

Um, my mom got me into yodeling long before I was singing, although I grew up in the Western lifestyle, and that's my heritage. I was recording country music for country radio and beating down that path for a long time. And and uh I wasn't doing a lot of cowboy music because I grew up with that, and it was kind of uh it wasn't as interesting to me until I started seeing that there's all these uh that's a whole other world of performing, you know, and that is my heritage, so it's the real deal when I write and sing about it. And my mom said you have to learn how to yodel, so always listen to your mother. And she said, you know, people are gonna like it. And I'm so glad. So I was ten years into my career before I learned how to yodel, and I didn't even know if I could. And you don't want to be around anybody when they're learning. No, no, you want to be uh far, far away and until you get it.

SPEAKER_01 5:44

So you said your mother kind of encouraged you and taught you, so yeah, didn't obviously your mother had some musical uh experience and some background. A little bit.

SPEAKER_03 5:52

She didn't take it very far because she was a one-room schoolhouse teacher. Oh, really? On the prairies of Saskatchewan, so there was d zero opportunities except to sing at the Kennedy Rodeo, Moose Mountain Pro Rodeo, that's in the little hometown that I grew up near in southeastern Saskatchewan, and maybe the uh the occasional uh event like the Christmas concert at the school.

SPEAKER_01 6:16

Sure.

SPEAKER_03 6:16

Things like that. So one room schoolhouse, how many kids was she You know, she said probably about thirty max, and that's grade one to eight. Of course, when when you're done grade eight, you're done.

SPEAKER_01 6:29

Did you start school in that same place at all?

SPEAKER_03 6:31

No. No, I'm not that old, but oh okay.

SPEAKER_01 6:34

Well, even though there's some some some it doesn't hurt tasks. That's kind of a vast that's vast country. It's big and open. And I told you we were talking before that that I've never seen so much canola in my life. That's right. Beautiful yellow flowers, fields and fields of yellow.

SPEAKER_03 6:51

It is beautiful in the summer.

SPEAKER_01 6:54

Whatever you want to call it.

SPEAKER_03 6:55

Yeah, and sometimes if the year is right, you'll get a flax field which is blue. And it it might be when the yellow is just going out, the blue is blooming, and you might get to see both on either side of the road and beautiful. Oh, it is both with a different color blue sky and and the yeah, Saskatchewan, especially where where I'm from, it's pretty flat. Not of a lot of trees or hills. I it they say it's so flat you can watch your dog run away for two weeks.

SPEAKER_01 7:21

Yes, yeah. You know that. Well, I I've told I've spent a lot a fair amount of time in the Red River Valley of North Dakota, which is similar. Similar. And I tell people you can stand on a beer can and see from one end of the valley to the other. So it's pretty. So who's your music your musical influence then in Saskatchewan as a young adult growing up?

SPEAKER_03 7:42

Well, the Carter family, Mother Maybell. Yeah. Um my dad was uh he was he was the um a little more of a musician than my mom, but um they were they were older when I was born. Like my dad was 52 when I was born, so he was done playing music, and my mom was 42. And so they were she was done teaching and she was just raising her kids on the farm and they were working hard on the farm, and my dad was long, I never even ever got to see him play, but he was the one that that could pick up any instrument so and play by ear. So I I probably got that talent from him, but he was a record collector, and you know, in those long winter, cold winter nights on the Saskatchewan prairies, when when we have two channels on our TV, one's English, one's French, and none of us were French speaking. So there's not a lot, there's not a lot to do. Play the records though, and dance and and listen to music. So my dad had all the great old records, Kitty Wells, um Wolf Carter, Canadian cowboy star, and the Carter family. I loved the Carter family and Mother Maybelle, um, you know, her guitar picking. That's my style of playing the guitar, is the Carter Scratch, actually. Okay and not knowing that it came from there until much later, um, I'm like, that's what I'm doing. When they actually put a name on her guitar style, the Carter Scratch. And so those were early influences and Emmy Lou Harris when I started buying my own records. Um, Emily Lou Harris, Olivia Newton John.

SPEAKER_06 9:10

Sure.

SPEAKER_03 9:10

Um, these pure voices, and then you know, all the all the country artists, Dolly, her writing, you know, always uh was a huge influence because she always wrote about stuff that was real. And I I was able to to pull from a lot of really great artists. And it Saskatchewan itself, there wasn't really that many uh artists that I could, you know, say, oh, there goes, you know, that was that were well known. And you didn't go out to concerts, there wasn't a lot of things going on, you know.

SPEAKER_01 9:38

So how far was it to like the what's the nearest big city?

SPEAKER_03 9:41

The nearest big city was Regina.

SPEAKER_01 9:43

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 9:44

And so that's capital city of Saskatchewan, and that was two hours in a bit.

SPEAKER_01 9:48

Are you are you east or west or north?

SPEAKER_03 9:51

Southeast.

SPEAKER_01 9:51

Southeast. Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 9:53

And so not far in today's standards, but back then, like you didn't even go to town four miles away. Um you know, you don't you go maybe once a week, and you better get everything you need in that one trip because you're not going back the next day. You know, it's a little different time.

SPEAKER_01 10:08

I grew up on a farm in Idaho and and and even though town was only, you know, two and a half or three miles of town, you know, my dad was always because what are you going to town for? Well, you don't need to go to town every day. So I can appreciate that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:22

So and then it was it wasn't until years later that you f we find out Joni Mitchell was a Saskatchewan, like she spent her formative years in Saskatoon. So she's a Saskatchewan gal, in a way, you know, but that wasn't that wasn't part of um my growing up. I didn't learn about her music till later because it wasn't country and I was you know Yeah, she was more folk. Yes, and then you know, finally my world opened up to all those artists and then but I was much older and sure.

SPEAKER_01 10:49

So so you you I heard you make the comment, your yodeling took you to Branson. Yes. So you spent ten years in Branson? Yes, we did. Yes, we did. So tell me about that. Well, let me back up a little bit because you're you're you you didn't just leave the farm and go to Branson, did you? Correct. You you did not. Did you spend time in Nashville and other places around?

SPEAKER_03 11:12

Yeah, I was in Nashville before Branson, but before any of that, I graduated when I was 17. And I wanted I knew from when I was 12 that I wanted to play music for a living. And my parents, and still when I graduated, that was my focus and goal. Where to get started, no clue, no idea. And my parents are like, surely not. You know, let's you should go to college, university for something, and then maybe the music would be on the side because you you know they didn't get how you could actually get out there and make a living doing that. So I loved working with uh horses and cattle, and I love I thought maybe being a vet, I didn't have the grades to be a vet, so I thought vet assistant, animal health technology, so headed off to Alberta to a really great college, Lakeland College, and studied that. Okay, but I I I didn't make it through the two years because I took my guitar with me and I played at every party, and I'm and as soon as people found out that I could sing and play, you know, I was always invited to the party. And so it was there that I met someone, a gal that was traveling through from Winnipeg. She was playing at the Cowboy Bar, a college bar in town, and my friends got me up to sing, and she said, You should come back, you should come back. That was really good. You should come back on Saturday and play our jam and then bring your guitar and like do an hour set. Do you have an hour worth of material? I said, Yes, I do. I got lots of songs in my my head. I wasn't a songwriter yet. So went back, did the hour set with them. We did some juds and just had a a blast. And she said, You know, you you accompany yourself really well. You could you could get out there right now doing what they call a single. I'll put you in touch with uh Banks Agency in Edmonton. So she did. I contacted them, made a little demo on my little, you know, the cassette, little cassette, the flat cassette, record, record, play. So did about a five-song demo on there and sent it off and with some promo shots my mom took, you know, on the farm. And uh they said, Yeah, we could we could get you going on the road. It'll be five days a week. You're gonna play uh nine to one, gotta have a drum machine and a sound system. So my mom believed in this, and she she was my dad was like still unsure, but my mom invested and said, Yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna buy this, I'm gonna pay for this so you can get out there, just see what happens. So they booked me for two years straight, and I only had Sundays off, and I did the circuit by myself, and I was just a little girl, like I just turned 18.

SPEAKER_01 13:44

Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_03 13:45

And uh I couldn't even play in Saskatchewan because I wasn't old enough. Couldn't play in Saskatchewan until I turned 19. And uh was was the drinking age. Yeah, and 19 in Saskatchewan and then 18 in Manitoba.

SPEAKER_01 14:01

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 14:02

Yeah. So so all along I'm playing and you know, just dreaming that someone will walk in, you know, and give you a break and or say, hey, um, today's episode of Musical Miles Podcast is brought to you by Roper Apparel and Footwear.

SPEAKER_01 14:18

Whether you're chasing songs, loading gear, or standing front row at a live show, roper blends Western tradition with modern comfort and style. Roper of the West.

SPEAKER_03 14:33

Or I'd like to record you, you know, but we're talking little, tiny little uh uh mining towns and farming communities and like no realistically, I was making money, yeah, and that was great because that was a dream. But I saved all my money and uh drove to Nashville when I was 20.

SPEAKER_01 14:52

So So you went to Nashville when you were 20.

SPEAKER_03 14:55

No credit card, no cell phone.

SPEAKER_01 14:57

Um there was there what year would this have been?

SPEAKER_03 15:01

That was 86, 87, 87, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:04

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 15:05

Drove to Nashville and didn't know where I was going, didn't know anybody, didn't have any contacts. I'm just going. And another thing, my parents are like, surely no, Adam, but they're my uh I wasn't afraid. My my desire and passion to go to where actually I can sing in front of people that might be able to do that, was far outweighed the fear. Yeah, you know, and it was a long drive. I had a 1974 Pontiac and jumped in and and away I went. Uh, one of the songs on that flash drive I gave you called Hit Your Wagon to a Star is kind of about that trip, but it's you know, for it's for everybody. Don't be afraid and it's never too late. So I went to Nashville. I never did hit the big time, but um the lessons I learned and ho honed my songwriting skills. Yeah. Um got to perform a lot on the you know, the songwriter rounds.

SPEAKER_01 15:54

You end up with a publishing deal. Did you go to work for a publisher and write music? No.

SPEAKER_03 15:58

No, I never, I never did. No, no, I never did.

SPEAKER_01 16:01

How long did you stay in Nashville then?

SPEAKER_03 16:03

I was there for about three years and then um immigration caught up with me.

SPEAKER_01 16:09

Now you're stealing stealing jobs. Have you met have you met Kat Higgins? No. You know Kat. I don't know. She's a Canadian songwriter. Oh, I'll have to look her up. A number one hit for Kenny Chesney, or co-wrote for Kenny Chesney uh Knowing You. Oh beautiful song, and and she's as sweet as she can be. I'll have to look her up. Well, she said when she was going back and forth, they were having the hardest time understanding that. How you come from Canada to go here, you have a guitar and you're not, yeah, what are you doing?

SPEAKER_03 16:48

Anyway, so yeah, so it was it was tough. Um, I had to come back to Canada. I didn't get deported, so that was good. So there was no black mark on it, you know, because I agreed to come back. But you know, it's it's um it it's not surprising how God works and his plan. I would have never I was never coming back. So if I would have never come back, I wouldn't have met my husband a couple years after that. So he's gonna be able to get it. Got back on the road, yeah, got back on the road in in Canada, and I still hadn't recorded yet either, because it in those days you still, you know, there was there weren't these home recording or the smaller studios that you could afford. There was just the biggest. Yeah, so I still hadn't recorded, but I was starting to write and get and accumulate some material for an album. And uh there were it started to where there was opportunities to if you have the money or you can save up enough to to get an album out there. So eventually I did record, but it wasn't until 10 years after being on the road and uh meeting my husband and we have a love we had a lovely daughter, and then I started because Canada has uh something called Canadian content, they have to play 35% Canadian content on country radio.

SPEAKER_00 17:58

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_03 17:58

So you have a chance.

SPEAKER_00 18:00

Yeah, you do. You do. If your stuff cuts the mustard, well, uh that's what friends down here have told me.

SPEAKER_03 18:06

It's hard. So I was able to get on mainstream country radio. Your stuff has to cut the mustard, mind you. You know, it has to be good, it has to be produced well because they're gonna play you in between a Reba and a Terry Clark song. They want it to be Canadian. Yes, yes, so yeah, but but you know what I mean. The the quality had to be up there. So I was able to work with some really good people and get my stuff on radio, uh, mainstream and be nominated.

SPEAKER_01 18:33

And did you get to um work with or meet anybody in Nashville that you had high hopes to meet, or someone that really, really mentored you and helped you along uh musically that was that ended up making it themselves?

SPEAKER_03 18:51

Yeah, well well, Riders in the Sky.

SPEAKER_01 18:53

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 18:54

Really nice uh cowboy act, Ranger Doug and I are still friends to this day. Yeah, and he's he's opened up some doors, we've done some writing. Yeah, and there's lots of little pockets of people that you meet. You know, uh it's all about relationships.

SPEAKER_01 19:09

It is, it really is. And finding your way to go. We've met some young songwriters. One in particular, we've had her on the podcast twice, and she still says, Look, I'm really she's really shy and really quiet, and she go, you know, write music with some of these writers, but then she just goes home and she just she hasn't really, really worked on her building her resume with other writers and really getting her name out there. And so it's that's been one of the hardest things for her. But the reality of it is you have to get out there and expose yourself and be uncomfortable, be vulnerable and be willing to take a no.

SPEAKER_03 19:46

Yeah, yeah, that's for sure. And and uh for me it was about playing live. You know, having stuff on the radio in Canada really helped. So I it bumped my shows up to the main stages at the festivals, the country thunder type festivals, and uh and then um and then when I got into a little more of the Western music, that's when the whole new envelope of doors opened, and that's when I had an opportunity to move to Branson with my family at this time. So that uh we I'm I'm totin' a husband and a daughter. So I we're gonna do this right. We're gonna get the visas, we're gonna get it all, so we're not so we're there and it doesn't happen what happened, you know, having to come we don't wanna be knocking on your door. Yeah, we're and we're we're selling our home in Al we were living in Alberta at the time and taking our daughter out of school, a grade the end of grade five, just outside of Edmonton. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 20:42

So you're way up north.

SPEAKER_03 20:43

Way up there, yeah. And we were we we've got to do this the right way. But the Sons of the Pioneers saw me play in Calgary. Okay and because I was yodeling up a storm, uh they they like that because they you know, they yodel and they hadn't seen there's lots of performers, but not very many that yodel and write and do the western, the real authentic western thing. So they invited us to be part of their show. So it was like a big de Yeah, so it was a big it was a big deal to sell our house and take our daughter out of school and take leave everybody we know and love and move there. And my husband, he's a musician, he understands. Oh, okay, yeah, and he understands he's he plays upright bass with me and okay, and he's also a professional driver, and he also does sound and studio work, so opportunities for him wherever we go. Yeah, and then he knows he knows my lifestyle. If I'm gone somewhere without him, he knows that I'm just there to work, sure, sure play music, and he knows you know where my heart is. And how long have you been together? Uh 37 years, 34. We just celebrated 34 years of marriage on Valentine's Day.

SPEAKER_01 21:54

Oh, we got married on Valentine's Day. Congratulations. Thank you. Um, and your daughter is how old now?

SPEAKER_03 22:00

34.

SPEAKER_01 22:00

Oh, brand new.

SPEAKER_03 22:02

I mean, early, early. Yes. In your in your marriage, you had a brand new baby and that's when my music really hit the market in Canada when she was little.

SPEAKER_01 22:12

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_03 22:12

Yeah. But you know, we found a way that we could make it work, that I we didn't miss anything. I didn't miss time with her growing up. You know, could always always make it work and balance the schedule. That was really important. And if I had to turn something down because she had something going on, that's what I did. Because that's most important. And you know, God will find a way to make it happen in a different way at another time, maybe even bigger. If you, you know, choose, I think, choose for me, choose family first.

SPEAKER_01 22:41

And does your daughter is she musical?

SPEAKER_03 22:45

She she can be. So she's uh we noticed early on, she's got a beautiful voice. We bought her a guitar for her 18th birthday was her request, and showed her some chords, and she was playing Gwen Stefani and Beatles right away. So she had the ear and the talent, but not the passion or drive. Don't want to do that, mom and dad. Don't want to do what she did.

SPEAKER_01 23:06

I mean, she grew up in the business, and so she seemed to be a little bit more than a lot of things.

SPEAKER_03 23:08

She's certainly yeah, we tried to we tried to hide the frustration and the and the and the hard parts, but um we we really made the music work. Like we were able to, you know, um make a living, a really good living, buy our homes with the music money we made from making music and and help her with her college. And but she is very talented. Um she's a cinematographer, like she works for CTV for 12 years now in Saskatchewan. So she's a camera woman, and that's her passion, and she's very good at it. And she's even shot a few of her mom's music videos. So she's good at what she does.

SPEAKER_01 23:47

Um yeah. Well that that's cool. Well, and you're you're extremely talented in other ways. You're an artist of oils, uh acrylic watercolor acrylic. Acrylic. Okay. Okay. And what do you like to to paint?

SPEAKER_03 24:03

Still life or oh my heart is the prairies. I paint a lot of prairie scenes and landscapes. I I've done some lot lots of desert scenes. So I um I I paint when when I get to paint what I want, it's gonna be something from Saskatchewan, like a grain elevator barn, and some canola fields. But I do get a lot of commissions.

SPEAKER_01 24:27

And this is a little bit of the uh looks like an old home. Is there a school?

SPEAKER_03 24:32

That's like a one-room schoolhouse, like my mom taught in something like that. Yes, and so that's still standing, not too far away from my parents' farm. And it's just they work around it. They haven't torn it down, and I just love that. That's not the school my mom taught me.

SPEAKER_06 24:48

Hoping and praying that I actually think that's and then surprisingly, that's it, um well, it worked out and so the so um, those are those really made me box because I'll do oil derricks and things I would never look at.

SPEAKER_03 25:03

Not ever on the way. I thought I could even paint. Um, three-year children's books. Okay, and I uh illustrated by me as well. And then my first book was a coffee table book with 34 poems that I wrote and 44 paintings. Oh wow. And it's probably it's called Poems and Paintings from a Prairie Girl. That's my biggest seller.

SPEAKER_04 25:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:22

Um I f I it's for very uh it's very approachable, easy to read poetry, and a lot of the poems in this book have become songs. So sometimes when I'm doing a concert where I have a lot of time on stage and it's my time, I'll do I'll read a poem from the book and then I'll do the song version. Okay so people can kind of see how it just takes a different uh road when you add music.

SPEAKER_01 25:47

Well, you know, as a performer, and and and because you write a lot of your own music, but you also do covers. So I got to hear you do uh Four Strong Winds the other day, an Ian Tyson song, right? Which is so cool, and he was a an iconic Canadian and and uh and a great cowboy uh Western singer in and we got to see him, believe it or not, uh before he passed in Elko at the Cowboy Poetry Gathering. Actually played with I think Tom Russell and uh and Adrian played with him. Okay, and so uh and someone else, I'm trying to remember, uh maybe uh one of the poets was there. They did a deal at the uh what did they call it? The 4G, the G the Bar G, 4 Bar G, what is it?

SPEAKER_03 26:35

The The Folklife Center?

SPEAKER_01 26:36

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. In their theater. Yes. Anyway, what a cool deal that was. But yeah, but uh we've also had the privilege of interviewing Corblund, another Canadian.

SPEAKER_03 26:46

Yeah, he's great.

SPEAKER_01 26:47

So he is uh he is a pistol. Uh uh love his music and his quirky sense of humor and the way he writes. But that's the thing. We we love we love the songwriter aspect of music, and and most Ms. Shannon's mother mother was a a member of the Arizona Songwriters Association. Nice. She passed away 25 years ago, and so but but so we used to get exposure to music from her on that side, and she'd say, Oh, she'd go to Nashville and then she'd come home and go, I saw this artist at the Bluebird, and you need to pay attention because they're gonna be big. And she saw Garth Brooks and Clint Black and KT Oslin and some really great artists that that she she should have worked for a uh a record company because she could pick them. She had a good eye and she had a good eye and a good ear.

SPEAKER_03 27:35

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 27:35

But um the the the songwriting side of things is really interesting because a lot of people just think that like yourself, you write your own all your own music and that you that's you wrote it. You if you sang it, you wrote it. Well, that's not the case most of the time.

SPEAKER_03 27:51

No, it's not the case for me for sure. I love uh songwriting, and I uh it's nice to have the opportunity to share my songs and my stories, and there's been tons of them, and I'll hopefully be able to write many more songs to come. But I love there's so many great songs out there. I love covers. I love learning covers, and you know, uh I think when I'm sitting in the audience, um uh listening to somebody just do unless every single song of theirs is a hit and you recognize that, you know, it's it's a nice treat for the listener when you throw in something.

SPEAKER_00 28:27

Yes, oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 28:28

That they recognize, and for me, it's not about me. Yeah, it doesn't matter if it's an Eli Barcy concert or I'm here at Art of the Cowgirl, which is it's all about the Western horse women here, and the music's just sprinkled in.

SPEAKER_06 28:39

Sure.

SPEAKER_03 28:40

But wherever wherever I am, it's a it's about the audience, and from my 40 years experience, they want to hear covers. Well, you're sprinkled in.

SPEAKER_01 28:51

You're an entertainer. You're an entertainer. That's it. And it is hard. Even as a podcaster, we interview, you know, Eli Barcy, but we've also interviewed Corblonde, and we've interviewed some of those who are recognizable. But even Dean Dillon, you know, a lot of people don't know the story and don't know about Dean Dillon. And when you start to tell them that that he had 87 cuts with George Strait and he wrote eleven number ones for George, then they go, I I say you don't know who Dean Dillon is, but you know his music.

SPEAKER_03 29:18

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 29:18

Have you had the fortune of having having any cuts with any other not big ones, no big cuts, but to have other artists have cut your music. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 29:27

Yep, here and there. And that's a that's an honor and a thrill. Yeah. And and then there's getting music um into film and you know, documentaries and things like that. And as a songwriter like and a woman, uh it doesn't matter how old I get, I'll always have that opportunity to pitch music to uh films, documentaries, commercials. You know, that's like never ending. They're looking for music every single day.

SPEAKER_01 29:54

Well, and you might have something in your catalog from way back. Exactly. I love those stories when we talk to a songwriter or someone that says, you know, we we wrote this song twenty years ago and it just got cut by a major artist and and now it's getting playtime. Or or that it's in a it's in a it's in a movie or it's in a TV series. I love those stories.

SPEAKER_05 30:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:17

Yeah. We like the backstories. We like the stories behind the music. Right. So and we and we like to tell people we we hope to think that we're peeling back a little bit of the curtain and the magic from the music, you know, so you can see behind and go, oh, that's how that happens, and that's why it happens. So do you do you you mentioned you do co-write some. Do you like to co-write?

SPEAKER_03 30:40

Yeah, I do. Um I've had a few good songs where we sat down together and started from scratch. Sure. And that that's great. That doesn't you don't always click necessarily.

SPEAKER_06 30:50

No.

SPEAKER_03 30:51

So like I was saying with this uh gal pal of mine, Doris Daly, she often writes the lyrics and I'll write the music. Sure. So we're gonna do that independently and then put it together. Sure. So, or when I go to Nashville, I'll it'll be the sit-down meetings for sure. So it depends.

SPEAKER_01 31:08

Do you still go to Nashville quite a bit?

SPEAKER_03 31:10

I I try to go at least once a year. Okay. Yep. Do some songwriter shows, you know, in the round. Yes, they're great.

SPEAKER_01 31:16

I'm glad you brought that up. We are we get home next week, um, and Thursday, we are hosting the very first, to my knowledge, songwriter round type show in Idaho Falls, Idaho.

SPEAKER_03 31:30

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_01 31:31

To my knowledge, it's never happened there.

SPEAKER_03 31:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:33

We have a lot of local, young, local, and even older artists that have been write their own music, but don't get the opportunity to share that, right? There's not really a platform anywhere. Um, you know, that those young artists are going out to the bars and stuff and playing locally, but I want people to experience I I tell people on this podcast, and I've made posts, listen, don't don't, don't trust me when I tell you that a a live that a live songwriter round is the coolest music experience you'll ever have. Check it out for yourself. You really have to do that. Go to a festival. For sure. You know, we you know, we do we do Whitefish uh Montana Songwriter Festival. Yeah. And so my goal from this is that we we expose the community and they we get a good following, and then we bring some bigger songwriters from other places to come in and perform and do a songwriter festival in Idaho Falls. We have a really cool downtown area, so I think it's it's designed for it. You know, you can walk to four or five six different venues over the course of a weekend and hear music and anyway. So I'm glad that's happening. I love that. Yeah, do you have a place to do that in in Winnipeg or in not so much.

SPEAKER_03 32:45

Um I belong to Sask Music, it's a really good organization. They will put on songwriter events a couple times throughout the year. But the Country Thunder, you know, the Country Thunder festivals. Um they're there's a string of those across um western Canada. So I'm booked at at two this year for the songwriter tent.

SPEAKER_04 33:07

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 33:07

And love, love those because they're they're sold out or they're they're packed.

SPEAKER_01 33:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 33:13

Um you can't get a standing room all the way.

SPEAKER_01 33:16

Which is amazing to me because we've we've been to some really big uh great songwriter festivals. Whitefish, Red Lodge, um, Livingston, Montana. Now they have now one have one in Vegas that we got to go to this last year. Uh they had 50 songwriters with 300 number one hits amongst them. So plus tens of thousands of cuts, I'm sure. Yes. But um and they and they're they're fairly well attended, but they're not overwhelming. And everywhere at all of these events, you're all accessible, right? We can walk up, shake your hand, say, Great set. Would you have time to sit down and visit visit with us on a podcast? And most of them all tell us yes.

SPEAKER_03 33:56

Yes, that's so which is really cool.

SPEAKER_01 33:58

Yeah. Um, and that's not always the case at a music festival.

SPEAKER_03 34:01

Right.

SPEAKER_01 34:02

Those artists are a little harder to get at sometimes.

SPEAKER_03 34:05

Well, you you offer such a great program. Like I'm just so delighted to be sitting here chatting with you and all the people that you've talked with. I'm feel like I'm among really good companies. So this is awesome.

SPEAKER_01 34:17

Well, we appreciate you taking time, and and I'm glad you reached back out to me this morning. I'm glad we we didn't miss you because you're you're headed out of town this afternoon.

SPEAKER_03 34:24

No, I have one more set tomorrow. Oh, you have a set tomorrow open. So today was kind of a day off and it worked out good because I had some people to run into and m more the networking and getting around doing contacts and something like this. You know, it's nice to do this when it's not I have to rush and have my brain on for performing.

SPEAKER_01 34:41

I can just relax a challenge for even for us. Yeah. Okay, we're gonna cut this short. And we are really, I don't even, I can't see. Yeah, we're right there. So we we try not to hold anybody hostage for too long because because we want to keep a little bit of a mystery about you. But tell tell our our listeners where they can find your music and your and your art and your books, all that stuff.

SPEAKER_03 35:05

So elibarsi got dot com B-L-I-B-A-R-S-I.com primarily, uh, and then just Google my name or um and everything will come up. Um I also have an art website, Prairie Girl Gifts, but you'll find that dot com, but you'll find that when you go to EliBarcy.com. I'm easy to find on Facebook.

SPEAKER_01 35:24

You did hand me the other day, you handed me your business card, which is really a cool concept. I love it. It had the QR code on it, which we do.

SPEAKER_03 35:31

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 35:32

Which takes me to your website. Yes. But the other cool thing about it is it's guitar picks.

SPEAKER_03 35:36

Yes.

unknown 35:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:37

So then it screws up your card once we punch them out, but well, if you use them a lot, you're not going to be able to put them back in.

SPEAKER_03 35:45

But you could also use it as a bookmark. But you're a picker, so you might you might want to try them.

SPEAKER_01 35:50

I I well I'm looking forward to it. Um I I think it's a great idea, and I I might even steal that idea from you as one one of our ways to promote. Because well, even people say to us all the time, do you have a business card? No, but I have this sticker that has my QR code. I love the sticker. The first thing you're gonna see when you click that is my ugly face because it's open right to the website. So but uh no, this it's always fun to get to meet someone new and to hear you play and hear your music and experience the yodeling because it's once again, it's not something we're people get to hear anymore. You know, when we were younger, it was a lot more common, yeah. It was, you know, especially in the western western music. But um we find ourselves we we have been exposed to so many different genres of music in our lifetime, but even with the podcast, you know, we've even interviewed a heavy metal band so in Texas. So we're we're open to sitting down with anybody because everybody has a story to tell.

SPEAKER_03 36:50

That's right. Music is music, and yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:53

Yeah. So I always like to ask this question, a couple of questions. Where's your favorite venue to play that you've ever played? I know that put you on the spot because we don't want to upset any venue.

SPEAKER_03 37:07

Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_01 37:08

If you get up in the morning and go, I want to go play this place today, where would it be?

SPEAKER_03 37:14

Ah that's a tough one. I really like playing in Branson, loved Branson. And we've got to be a big thing. The Sons of the Pioneers, um, sharing the stage with them every night for for a while. That was awesome. Um everywhere in Nashville is awesome, but you know, some place like uh, you know, the middle of Wyoming, um I'm finished a festival and I get invited to play uh at the church on would you play at our church on Sunday before you leave town? We'd love to. And we're out on a hill playing for a small group of people of 30, and you can just feel yeah the presence, you know. Maybe maybe those venues mean the very, very most to me.

SPEAKER_01 38:02

Uh well you know, because it's music has its own, can be its own religious experience, right? And especially where you're at, right?

SPEAKER_03 38:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:10

So well, cool. All right. If you could work with anyone from the past, anyone who's past, who would it be?

SPEAKER_03 38:18

Let's see. I'd love to pick out a tune with Mother Maybell.

SPEAKER_00 38:24

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 38:25

As mentioned before. Love May Mother Maybell Carter.

SPEAKER_00 38:28

Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 38:30

I'm not I play auto harp too. And banjo and a few other instruments. It's just it's I only travel with guitar when I'm flying, but that would be fun to pick out the Wildwood Flower with her.

SPEAKER_01 38:42

Yeah, yeah, that would. What a great song.

SPEAKER_03 38:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:44

Okay, um, Alive. Who would you love to?

SPEAKER_03 38:47

Dolly Parton.

SPEAKER_01 38:48

Dolly Parton.

SPEAKER_03 38:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:49

Perfect. That's a great answer. We've heard that one a few times. I bet you it was interesting when we asked Damie that question. He wanted to work with, he said he'd love to share the stage with Lyle Love It and Robert Earl Keene.

SPEAKER_03 38:59

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 39:00

And I and I that tickled me because I'm a big fan of both of them.

SPEAKER_03 39:03

I love Lyle Love It. And Brandy Carlisle.

SPEAKER_01 39:06

Oh my goodness. What a what a talent. Yeah. Yeah. Well, what she did for Tanya Tucker, right? I mean, she kind of helped.

SPEAKER_06 39:15

I was listening to Brandon Carlisle being on the case.

SPEAKER_01 39:18

Oh, you were? Nice. Oh, that's funny.

SPEAKER_03 39:22

Love her sound, her writing, and um, she seems to be just a real cool gal down to earth. I I think I'd like her.

SPEAKER_01 39:31

Oh, cool.

SPEAKER_03 39:32

Yeah. I'd like to be her friend.

SPEAKER_01 39:34

There you go. There you go. Well, you never know. We never know who's gonna see what, right? Or hear hear this. So but uh when we get uh when we get ready to to post this, we'll share it with you. Make sure you share it with your followers as well on your social media. That always helps us. Yeah, I'm happy to. And and we will just so you know, if you go back and look at any of our past episodes, they're all there's more about Eli Barcy, and there's your all your social media links will be on there as well as your music links to Spotify or wherever. And so and that's helpful. You have this really cool thing that you gave me. You brought me uh a little gift, and it is a um what'd you say, seven? No, how many, how many? I can't see.

SPEAKER_03 40:15

Thirty. So I've recorded uh 17 albums to date, and we're recording. Yeah, we're recording 18, number 18 later this year. And so when I'm traveling, it's it's hard to keep them all in stock. Yes, for one thing, and then I might be doing a song off of one that I don't have with me, and and then you know, say five titles or f or seventeen titles, five of each. Like it's just a big box. Well, it's hard enough packing a guitar. Yeah, it is, and you're on the plane, and and so. Um, and then how many people come up to the merch table and say, Yeah, we don't have C D player anymore. We don't have a CD player in our vehicle, yeah. And on and on.

SPEAKER_04 40:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 40:57

I'm like, hmm, you know, well that's a shame because I've got a lot of CDs. So I curated 30 from the 17 albums. Yeah. A good mix of stuff that I have on country radio, yeah, the Western Roots stuff, um, gospel, little bit of bluegrass.

SPEAKER_06 41:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 41:15

And I think they're all original, maybe the couple of folk? Yeah, and there's folk, Americana type style, and put it on this flash drive, which is has a little USB port on it. Yeah, and you can. And you can plug it into your computer, download it to your phone, or probably be able to play it in your vehicle too. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:32

Yeah, a lot of new vehicles have flash drives. That that's such a great idea, and I love that. I think it's really cool. Yeah, oh yeah, you put it in the.

SPEAKER_03 41:40

If you buy it at a festival, you put it in your pocket, you don't have to pack it around.

SPEAKER_01 41:43

That is a very, very cool idea. And then it gives you a real taste of a selection of what you do.

SPEAKER_03 41:49

Yeah, and then if people like uh one grouping more than another, they can say, I really like the Western ones. What do you have for albums? Right. Contact me, and then I can and then I'll ship out an album with the rest of the songs like that or the country album.

SPEAKER_01 42:02

Have you ever met uh Stephanie Quayle, songwriter out of Montana?

SPEAKER_03 42:06

No, I haven't.

SPEAKER_01 42:07

I met her at a songwriter festival in Livingston and she said, Byron, did you get a CD? And I said, Stephanie, I don't have any way to play a CD anymore. And I didn't really think I did. Yeah. And and and she goes, Well, here, take two. I just got done telling her I didn't have she's she's giving away because people they're now Stamy will tell you that his his listeners all still have CD players, even in their cars. Yes, so I think they updated from a 99 Dodge to a 24 Dodge, right?

SPEAKER_03 42:37

So I still get the odd doc. Right. And and want it signed and they want to pull it.

SPEAKER_01 42:42

Press vinyl.

SPEAKER_03 42:43

No, I came close. I'm going to. I'm going to I think it's a cool idea.

SPEAKER_01 42:47

It's really made a resurgence.

SPEAKER_03 42:49

Yeah. The next album, number 18.

SPEAKER_01 42:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 42:52

I hope to, and then maybe do like a compilation one. Because it it those are collectors and people are buying record players.

SPEAKER_01 43:01

Yes, they are. They are. We have a record player. We still have our old albums from high school, right? Yeah, isn't that the same? Miss Shendell was a disco girl, right? So she has her disco albums. I have I have my Pink Floyd and uh she has Fleetwood Mac and Prince. You have Prince, you have so we have very eclectic taste in music.

SPEAKER_03 43:21

Do you have like a little listening party every date night once in a while and play?

SPEAKER_01 43:26

We listen to music all the time. Yeah. We have seen in the last we uh average probably somewhere around 400 live acts a year since we started the podcast. Now, with that being said, because we're always trying to listen, if given enough time and and and enough preparation, I know a little bit more about you than I and I today I knew a little bit, not enough, but but you're you're an easy interview, and so that's nice. Sometimes you have to pry it out of them.

SPEAKER_03 43:51

Well, you you make it easy. Oh, you're very good at this, so you make me feel really comfortable, and I'm having such a fun time visiting.

SPEAKER_01 43:58

Well, it is it's always fun. You have to like people, right? And so and I love people. And and Miss Shandon will tell you I've never met a stranger. And she's way more comfortable behind the camera than she is in front. But when we're done with you here, we're going to go out and walk around and she's going to get to do some on-the-spot interviews. She's a fashion girl, right?

SPEAKER_06 44:19

So I can tell.

SPEAKER_01 44:20

We're going to do a couple of real quick interviews. In fact, you know what we're going to do when we get done here? We're going to have you do, because we'll have you do a shout-out for us.

SPEAKER_03 44:28

Oh, I'd love to.

SPEAKER_01 44:29

And and we'll have you and Shenda do the shout-out.

SPEAKER_03 44:31

Love to.

SPEAKER_01 44:32

Anyway, but thank you so much. This has been a lot of fun. We look forward to seeing you somewhere down the road.

SPEAKER_03 44:38

I can hardly wait.

SPEAKER_01 44:39

When we get well, hopefully we'll get to see you back in Elko or somewhere. We're headed to next week. No, no, in two weeks, we go to Logan, Utah, to the Cash Valley. Not Cash Valley, it's uh Cowboy Rendezvous.

SPEAKER_03 44:54

Yeah. So say hi to Dale Major and all the good folks. He's the organizer at I've done that festival and worked with Dale Major for probably the last 20 years. And last time I was there, maybe three years ago, they switch it up. So very rarely do they repeat.

SPEAKER_01 45:09

We're going to be there. Uh we get to, we're hoping to get to interview Skip Ewing, who's the National Songwriter you mostly. And then Ren Hill will be there. And we've had Brent We've had Wren on the Punch. What a great guy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 45:22

And have you been to this festival? Never. Oh, you'll love it.

SPEAKER_01 45:25

The crazy thing is, our son, our youngest, uh, which is of our four children, is our only college graduate, and he graduated from Utah State in So uh he's he's a big Aggie fan.

SPEAKER_03 45:35

So nice. Anyway, but well, there's a good connection.

SPEAKER_01 45:38

Well, Eli, thank you again. Thank you very much. This has always been so it's always fun, and uh, we we appreciate you and we look forward to seeing you. Hey, for Musical Miles Podcast, I'm your host, Byron Duffin, here with Eli Barcy. We are in Wickenberg, Arizona, Darter the Cowgirl, and we will see you somewhere down the road. Adios for now.