Dears frontman Murray Lightburn's new album is a eulogy for his dad

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Murray Lightburn’s new album, As soon as Upon a Time in Montreal, is the eulogy he didn’t get to make instantly following the loss of life of his father.

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William James Lightburn — recognized to many as Pastor Jimmy — died alone in a nursing dwelling in Montreal in April 2020, on the peak of the primary wave right here of the COVID pandemic. He had been affected by Alzheimer’s illness for years and within the phrases of his son, when he caught COVID, “it was the nail within the coffin.” He was 86.

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“My mother went day by day and all of the sudden she couldn’t go in any respect,” mentioned Lightburn, in a cellphone interview from his recording studio in Park Ex on Thursday. “Then the following time she was in a position to go, she was wearing full PPE to go and maintain his hand as a result of he examined optimistic and he wasn’t doing effectively. He wasn’t going to make it. My mother was scheduled to go see him the following day and the workers mentioned, ‘Oh no it’s not an excellent day, we’ve had too many deaths on this flooring alone, and so we’ll see.’ After which that night time, in the course of the night time, completely alone, he went.”

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Lightburn, who’s the lead singer of the acclaimed Montreal alt-rock band The Dears, solely started his grieving course of just a few months later as a result of there was a lot to cope with proper after his dad’s loss of life.

After which the songs began flowing, and in some ways they try to seize the lifetime of this man, a passionate jazz saxophonist, who made his means from Belize by way of New York Metropolis to finish up in Montreal within the mid-’60s, all as a result of he was decided to be along with his teenage sweetheart from Belize. They might stay married for 56 years, till his loss of life.

“The track No New Deaths At present was actually from studying the information months later and seeing that headline, I feel it was within the Gaz, and I used to be like, ‘Wow’,” Lightburn mentioned. “Simply the idea of ‘no new deaths.’ It was only a battle to compute that phrase. So I wrote that track No New Deaths At present and it encapsulates that time frame, every thing from coping with the nursing dwelling, not having the ability to go to any sort of burial of any type, solely my mother was allowed to go.”

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Lightburn discovered it so powerful to not have had an opportunity to say that final goodbye earlier than he went nor to have a correct funeral to have a good time his dad’s life.

“It was horrible, what can I say, it was surreal,” Lightburn mentioned. “It was not the way it was purported to go down. He was cheated out of a correct goodbye, like hundreds of thousands of individuals. There’s a track on the album that talks concerning the ‘seven weeks we received’t get again,’ on Lady You’ve Acquired To Let Me Go.”

The album is an try to offer one thing approximating a correct goodbye and Lightburn does that by way of eight songs that attempt to have the deep significant conversations along with his dad they by no means managed to have when he was alive.

“I lived with this individual my complete adolescence, till I left dwelling once I was 19, and other than the Expos, there was little or no actual dialog with the person,” Lightburn mentioned.

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He has had so many conversations along with his mother since his dad’s loss of life and he’s discovered a lot about him. He simply needs that he might’ve heard these tales from his dad’s mouth immediately.

“I consider all of the issues he went via even simply to get to Montreal after which the issues he went via as soon as he acquired right here, with none levels, he didn’t have any training,” Lightburn mentioned. “He needed to drop out of faculty in Grade 9 to assist his household. So when he acquired right here, there weren’t a whole lot of alternatives. I used to be simply making an attempt to think about what sort of a battle that was, to combine into that world. And he was a musician.”

His mom was working as a nurse on the Montreal Common Hospital and his dad was gigging across the province, normally taking part in in pop bands and never taking part in the bebop jazz he so cherished. A long time later, within the thick of his battle with Alzheimer’s, his dad informed Murray a narrative about going to see legendary American sax participant John Coltrane, his dad’s idol, on the well-known New York Metropolis jazz membership Birdland.

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When Murray was nonetheless younger, his dad acquired out of taking part in the golf equipment. “He mainly hung up his skates,” mentioned Lightburn.

He did numerous issues to make ends meet, together with working a dépanneur. However that went belly-up when he grew to become a born-again Christian and determined he would not promote beer and cigarettes. He then grew to become a Pentecostal pastor.

They by no means actually talked about Murray’s success as a musician, however he did like to hold round along with his son within the studio and he performed sax on a few songs on The Dears’ third album, Gang of Losers.

Lightburn had simply develop into a father himself “and I used to be in a headspace the place I needed to attach all of it.”

That introduced them shut once more, like once they used to hearken to Expos video games on the radio means again within the day, however Lightburn nonetheless deeply regrets that they by no means had the massive conversations he so desired.

Murray Lightburn performs La Sala Rossa Saturday, April 15, at 8 p.m., $32.21. 4848 St-Laurent Blvd. 514-284-0122, casadelpopolo.com.

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