Bernie LaBarge
Bernie was born March 11, 1953 in Ottawa, Ontario. He was a teen guitarist, as he explains, “I saw The Beatles on ‘Ed Sullivan’ in 1964 and started learning guitar soon after. I was playing professionally at age 13.” Having spent most of his career performing in bars across Canada and the USA, it was the 80s before Bernie cut his own recordings, for one of which he was nominated for a Juno. “I had an album and a bunch of singles in the 80s,” he says. “I sang on a few tracks with Kim Mitchell and I played the guitar on a track on one of his albums too.”
When Lou Pomanti called Bernie about joining Alex’s house band in November 1994, “I was in Portage La Prairie, Manitoba (Canada) playing with Cassandra Vasik in 1994. I had just walked into my hotel room after an all-night drive.” It seemed like a good idea, and Bernie has been in the band ever since, just carrying on what has turned out to be quite a journey. “Playing with many, many heroes of mine keeps me going,” says Bernie. “From Boxcar Willie to Gordon Lightfoot to The Irish Rovers to Domenic Troiano to Alex Lifeson to John Sebastian, etc… It’s a very long list and it’s still growing.”
Bernie reserves some of his finest praise for Alex. “I wish I had known Alex all my life,” he says. “We have a very special connection. I feel as if I’ve known him forever. We both have the same inherent feeling about guitar playing and music (and life) in general. I can only say that about a handful of people I have met over the years. He is completely humble, very giving, ridiculously creative, and drop-dead hilarious. He’d give you the shirt off his back.” It’s a mutual feeling, according to Orbit Room co- owner Tim Notter. “Alex has enormous respect for Bernie,” he says.