Bernie LaBarge (born March 11, 1953) is a Canadian guitarist, singer and songwriter, and producer.

LaBarge has been the guitarist/front man for acts such as Rain, Sweet Blindness, Zwol, Stem, Stingaree, The Irish Rovers, Cassandra Vasik, The Dexters, and the George Olliver band. He has also recorded and toured with The Irish Rovers, Doug Riley, Ian Tyson, David Clayton-Thomas, Rhinoceros, Long John Baldry, Domenic Troiano, Ronnie Hawkins, John Kay, Kim Mitchell, John Sebastian, David Cassidy, and Rush‘s Alex Lifeson.

LaBarge was born in Ottawa, Ontario. His family then moved to Burlington, Ontario, and he grew up in a musically inclined house, listening to everything from show tunes to Motown. While he dropped music lessons after six months, he explained “When the Beatles and the British Invasion came around, I’d hang around a record store, Music Village in Burlington, and learned guitar from listening to records. That store shaped who I am. Much of that time—Malcolm Gladwell‘s ‘10,000-Hour Rule’—was spent alone in my parents’ basement with a record player and a guitar.”

He was inspired by seeing The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show with hundreds of girls screaming. He recalls, “I was no different than a million other guys when I saw The Beatles— the band blew our minds. But my desire to become a musician was really George Harrison‘s fault. I loved the way he hung back and played all the interesting parts—a guitar solo and the little licks here and there. That’s when I knew I wanted to be a guitarist and make a career of it. Even though I’d never picked up a guitar, I wanted to be just like George Harrison.”

LaBarge is mainly self-taught.

He began playing professionally in 1967, and then during the 1970s into the early 1980s, LaBarge toured with various bands as a guitarist/front man. So, the last years of the 1970s saw him start to segue into studio work.

LaBarge moved to Toronto in 1977, recalling “I wanted to be the small fish in a big pond, just to see if I could cut it”.

The first band he formed in Toronto was Stingaree, explaining: “I knew what I wanted to see; dueling lead guitars (Bernie and Brian MacLeod), endless solos, playing covers and originals. So, I went about putting together a dream band. I scouted good players, and I coaxed them to quit their bands. I bought a truck, and had an agent lined up. In the process, I had a motto—I strived to be worst guy in the band. I have always looked for situations where I would be challenged on stage by players who made me play to the best of my ability. Players who also forced me to push the envelope, and Stingaree certainly accomplished that. It was the best way to improve.”

He recalls that as a kid, while he was learning to play guitar, he wanted to be a session musician. His father had an interest in tape recorders, so with the equipment in the family basement, LaBarge figured out how to tape songs off the radio, opening up another track and playing along with it: “I wanted to be that guy on the record, embellishing the tune like George Harrison did to Beatles tunes”. In the late 1970s, he started doing jingles at Grant Avenue studio in Hamilton, Ontario with engineer Dan Lanois and his brother Bob. He sang and played on 200 jingles for local companies. 

By 1980, LaBarge was performing with Kearney, King, McBride and LaBarge at Toronto’s El Mocambo Tavern.

He stopped touring in 1981 and put his efforts into songwriting. He wrote “Dream Away,” produced by then budding-producer Daniel Lanois, and it was released as a single in 1981.    Bernie continued to write for himself and others, landing a contract with Columbia (Sony) Records to record an album of his songs, which became ‘Barging In’. The record earned him the Canadian Juno Award nomination in 1984 for Most Promising Male Vocalist. 

He later went on to performing on hundreds of worldwide jingles (Coke, Pepsi, GM, Ford, etc) and countless recording sessions with producer Jack Richardson. LaBarge also played for television series Smith & Smith (1979–1985), Party with The Rovers (1983–1986), Fraggle Rock (1983-1987), Danger Bay (1985–1989) on CBC, and The Doodlebops. 

In the 1990s, LaBarge performed with The Irish Rovers, Mind Over Matter, The Danny B Blues Band, Cassandra Vasik, The Incontinentals, and The Stickmen. He also became the lead guitarist for The Dexters in 1994, and began playing at The Orbit Room, a local Toronto bar co-owned by Tim Notter and Rush’s Alex Lifeson, who often jammed with the band. LaBarge played at The Orbit Room for more than 1000 appearances. In November 2014, The Dexters completed their twentieth anniversary at The Orbit Room with a farewell appearance.

In 2015, LaBarge suffered a fall and injury, requiring a surgery which kept him from performing live. The Dexters reunion in January 2020 was his first concert in five years. and now he’s back recording from my home studio.

LaBarge describes Jack Richardson as a “surrogate father” to him after they met: “I got booked to do my first session with Jack Richardson around 1983, for singer/songwriter Christopher Ward. Jack and I, along with David Greene, Jack’s favorite engineer, hit it off immediately, and I guess I did a good job. Jack started booking me for all sorts of sessions, and he, David and I became quite the team. Jack introduced me to The Irish Rovers—and I worked with them on their television show, Party With The Rovers. Jack and David Greene recommended me for the audition for Fraggle Rock. So his influence has been immense. I loved Jack and his wife Shirley, and I still keep in close touch with his kids. We’re like family.”

Another major influence was guitarist Domenic Troiano, who inspired LaBarge in high school: “Donnie’s band, The Mandala, was the first live band I saw at high school, and they changed my life.”

David Clayton-Thomas, lead vocalist of Blood, Sweat & Tears, said of working with LaBarge: “I’ve known Bernie LaBarge for decades. We’ve recorded and toured the world together, and working with him was always a joy. The ultimate groove player and one of the finest blues players alive.”^[9]

LaBarge’s other influences include Jimi Hendrix, George Harrison, Curtis Mayfield, James Burton, Eric Clapton, Carlos Santana, Albert King, Domenic Troiano, Steve Cropper, Jeff Beck, Steely Dan, Elvis Costello, Robin Trower, Howard Roberts, Elliott Randall, Rick Derringer, Elliot Easton, Peter Frampton, Gary Moore, Peter Green, and Kenny Marco.

Danny Weis of Lou Reed, Iron Butterfly, Bette Midler, and Rhinoceros stated “If you have Bernie LaBarge on your gig, you know you’re covered. He always knows the right thing to play, and always has a smile. When he played with me on the Rhinoceros reunions gig in 2009, it felt like the original band was back together as he covered that guitar part perfectly. When you’ve got Bernie on stage, you’re in for a good time. He’s a great guitar player and a great friend.”