The long–time manual labourer–turned–revered singer–songwriter populates Empty Train with the lonely, faceless patrons of a Yukon night club (“Mirror Ball”); hospital patients who “might get home but you never know” (“Hospital”); working class heroes in the form of sailors, signalers and stokers (“Crucible”); and women seeking to escape their circumstances through the sex trade (“Blue Girl”). His songs have been covered by the Del McCoury Band, the Rankins, the Barra McNeils and Tracy Grammer — among countless others. He performs regularly at some of the world’s most prestigious music festivals — Tonder in Denmark, Port Fairy in Australia — and he’s the subject of the feature documentary Burning Bright.