From Fort Qu'Appelle, Saskatchewan singer-songwriter Thom Barker comes a new CD that runs the emotional gauntlet. From the angry No Forever to the blissful The Quiet In Us, Barker delivers the goods in his signature “Frantic Folk” style, which has found an audience that spans generations and continents.

“Reviewers have sometimes called my music bittersweet,” Barker said. “So be it. Isn't life? I think we miss a lot by not embracing our angst.”

In the brave new world of the Internet, Twice the Usual — the artist's sophomore offering — is quickly gaining momentum with a growing presence on sites such as CBC Radio 3, MySpace and ReverbNation, as well as, Web radio stations such as Awesome Radio. As of May, it will be electronically distributed by the Indie coalition Community Musician on more than 100 commercial music sites including iTunes, Amazon, Napster and Snocap.

Barker — whose first CD, The Forest for the Trees (1995), has been compared to Billy Bragg and Gordon Lightfoot — has packed a lot into his four decades of living. A geologist by education, Barker has at various times also been a labourer, door-to-door vacuum dealer, diamond appraiser, car salesman, high-tech project manager and, most recently, a reporter and popular columnist with The Interior News, the Smithers, B.C. newspaper named Best Overall in its class in 2007.

But always in the background is the music, which he has performed in clubs and at festivals from Ontario to British Columbia to Texas, where it has enjoyed moderate airplay on college and community radio. He now lives on Echo Lake, just outside Fort Qu'Appelle, Saskatchewan with his wife Lorraine.

The new release, produced by brother Ken Barker at Art Facts Studio in Austin, Texas, is his first to feature full band arrangements with Thom on acoustic guitar and vocals; Ken on basses, keyboards, drum programming and background vocals and; Christian Chénier on electric guitars.

Ken's musical background is in the classical world. As a teenager, he won several awards for piano performance, including the Royal Conservatory of Music's top honor. His numerous musical projects include solo recordings and independent film soundtracks. Ken is currently a scientist at the University of Texas at Austin where he conducts research in Artificial Intelligence.

Christian is one of those undiscovered musical talents, content to be a husband, father and collector of great guitars, but capable of dumping out the whole bag of guitar hero tricks on the floor in a single solo.