Cecil Burns is an aspiring (though aging) singer/songwriter with an emphasis on the songwriter part. Cecil’s music runs the gamut of country ballads, tongue-in-cheek story songs, rollicking rockers and heartfelt love songs. His major songwriting style influences are John Prine, Stan Rogers, Steve Goodman and Gordon Lightfoot.
Cecil started writing songs with his high school best friend, JK Gulley, back in the early 1970’s. At that time Cecil would write lyrics and JK would craft melodies to fit. Some of their songs were hits at the local school dances. After high school, JK made music his full time career and became a well-known and award winning singer/songwriter, studio musician, producer, teacher and mentor to other artists.
Cecil became an environmental professional, working in government, consulting and ending up in private industry. He continued to dabble in songwriting but never took the songs any further than his notebook and maybe a rough tape recording. Cecil and JK kept in touch over the years and would get together every so often and work on new songs just for the fun of it. After he retired from the corporate world in 2018, Cecil picked up his pen and guitar again and started to write. With encouragement and support from JK, Cecil decided to build an album of original songs to record and release. Work on the album started in 2018 and is continuing today with an expected release date of sometime in early 2021.
If you would like to keep abreast of the progress on Cecil’s upcoming album, email Cecil at cecil.burns451@gmail.com and he will put you on his mailing list. Cecil sends out weekly emails with rough mixes of the songs he is currently working on plus other interesting tidbits and links. He would love feedback about his songs – let him know what you like or don’t like – it all helps make a better end result.
Cecil also plays bagpipes with the competitive St. Andrews Pipe Band from Winnipeg and is the current Pipe-Sergeant for the Kenora Scottish Pipes and Drums. He also teaches beginner bagpipes for the Kenora Scottish. If you are interested in learning to play the bagpipes, Cecil gives private lessons through the Kenora Scottish. Lessons are free, however, there is a one-time charge of $100 to cover the cost of a practice chanter and music lesson book.
You can contact Cecil at the above email address or phone (807) 468-5542.