Dubbing his song-craft as primarily country with some “rock influence,” singer-songwriter Jimmy Whiffen said he faced the challenge of walking the line between creating radio-friendly tunes and retaining an intimate feel to his music when writing his latest songs.
He admitted half the tracks on his new six-song record, It's a Livin' It Ain't No Life, have “a little bit more of a commercial feel.”
“But we still wanted to keep some of the element of some of the personal stuff and the deeper thinking kind of songs,” Whiffen said in a telephone interview from his home base of Edmonton. “We had the best of both worlds on this record.”
He added the main drive behind the new recordings was to skirt around the pop radio format of songs that have short life spans.
“The thing with that is it's so here today and gone tomorrow. You have to try to think about what people are going to want to listen to down the road.”
Whiffen is on the road promoting the new record and he hits the stage for a solo acoustic performance at Tracks Pub on June 7 at 9:30 p.m.
It's the singer's first time performing in Olds on his first tour playing original material.
But playing live is nothing new for Whiffen, as he has been performing cover songs for 28 years.
And although he isn't shy about pointing out his age, Whiffen said he has no plans to fade away from the live music scene anytime soon.
“I want to keep playing for the love of it.”
For more information, visit www.jimmywhiffen.ca.
