Another great night of music, this time courtesy of Anne Schaefer, Paul O'Brien, Alison Vardy and members of the quartet. Anne gave us a peek into her new upcoming CD, a "concept" album that revolves around an assortment of intriguing characters culled from her slightly quirky imagination: idiosyncratic, confessional characters, each with a markedly different feel for life. What makes this is a significant departure from Anne's last CD is the punchy, almost raucous rhythm of several of her new tunes and a kind of contrapuntal relationship between the music and lyric. Great song writer and a dry appealing sense of humour that the audience really tapped into.
Paul O'Brien hails from Birmingham, England. His parents, though, are Irish-born and bred, which as Paul explained last night has caused him some chagrin. Seems his claim of Irish roots has been met with scepticism on the part of a few Irishmen who refer to anyone of Irish descent who's not actually been born there as "a plastic". Paul described the humiliation he felt because of the term in a song of the same name (also the name of his new upcoming CD). If his new CD out next month is anything like his last it's a must buy.
I first heard Alison Vardy at the Victoria Folk Club several months ago. As the date for the annual Buddhist Centre Benefit Concert arrived I remembered the magical effect her harp work had on the audience and gave her a call. She agreed to play and from that moment on I knew we had a terrific line-up for April 12. Alison did not disappoint. Her deft and fluid fingering on the Celtic harp entranced us all.
Very gratified by the response to Nancy and I as we sang a few new tunes, in particular “Tender Mercies” by Eliza Gilkyson, a song that attempts to reconcile the feelings of hope and despair that permeate Western and Middle Eastern societies. A touching, spare piece of music that I fell in love with the moment I heard her sing it at the Edmonton Music Festival a few years back.
For more info and music by last night’s performers check out these websites:
http://www.anneschaefer.com/
http://www.paulobrien.ca/music.php
http://www.alisonvardy.com/
Cover photo for CD "From Away"
This pic was taken off Dallas Road in Victoria. No Fuss. No Muss. Just the sea and me.
About Me
- David Godkin
- As reviewers, we naturally present our biases as strengths. If we’re paying attention we’ll also recognize anything overdone or done in ignorance of the larger historical and aesthetic frame in which both poetry and criticism exist is likely to do disservice to both. Even then we're more likely to miss more than we catch, appreciate less those poems worthy of praise, while elevating others beyond their genuine deserts. My own biases in poetry lean towards compression, dense allusive imagery, dissociative leaps in meaning, lines rich in personality and driven by strong purpose or intentionality. Naturally, these represent a very small part of the broad range of tastes and expectations through which any book might be filtered. Uppermost must be our sympathies for the poet whose satisfactions when we get it right must almost inevitably be tempered by an even greater patience when we get it wrong.
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