Chantal Kreviazuk
Enter Sid Halley
07/03/10 19:21 Filed in: Reading
I'm not sure if you can plan a better Sunday evening:
a great home-cooked dinner, a strong rye-and-ginger,
Chantal Kreviazuk on the CD player and the Oscars on
deck in about an hour. Life can be really good, even
as I approach the frightening age of 45.
Chantal is belting out the tunes on her break-out disc, Under These Rocks and Stones, with it lyrical repetitions of "green apples" and "cotton candy" throughout the album. Her two early hits, "Wayne" and "Surrounded", are stirring happy memories of our recent encounter with Kreviazuk at the Fredericton Playhouse in a spectacular concert.
I can't say I've seen many (if any) of the movies that are up for Academy Awards tonight but I still love the show. A couple of years ago, Patti and I caught the broadcast with about 300 other people at the Bloor Cinema in Toronto, probably my favourite mode of Oscar watching! Tonight I'm looking forward to Steve Martin as host. Should be fun.
Meanwhile, I've moved on to Dick Francis' fourth novel, 1965's Odds Against. For Kicks was as good as advertised, featuring DF's first really cruel villain, but was a little heavy on the self-justification by protagonist Daniel Roke. Odds Against is significant because it first introduces Sid Halley, arguably Francis' most successful, most complex and most interesting hero. It also features one of the most memorable, horrifying scenes he wrote but I'll tell you more about that when I get to it. I'm still only about 70 pages in so there's lots more to come.
Halley is an ex-jockey, a champion, who had to give it up when he lost the use of one hand in a messy steeplechase accident. Scarred, both inside and out, Halley slowly works himself out of a deep depression to discover he's actually pretty good at the detection business. Maybe, just maybe, life is worth living after all, even if the life of a champion jockey is forever lost to him.
In Odds Against, Francis flexes his creative muscles while keeping the action galloping along. Halley proved so popular, meanwhile, that Francis brought him back in at least one later novel (Whip Hand), something he resisted doing with almost every other hero he created (for some reason, I think one other hero made a second appearance but I can't remember which: we'll figure it all out as I keep reading).
Chantal is belting out the tunes on her break-out disc, Under These Rocks and Stones, with it lyrical repetitions of "green apples" and "cotton candy" throughout the album. Her two early hits, "Wayne" and "Surrounded", are stirring happy memories of our recent encounter with Kreviazuk at the Fredericton Playhouse in a spectacular concert.
I can't say I've seen many (if any) of the movies that are up for Academy Awards tonight but I still love the show. A couple of years ago, Patti and I caught the broadcast with about 300 other people at the Bloor Cinema in Toronto, probably my favourite mode of Oscar watching! Tonight I'm looking forward to Steve Martin as host. Should be fun.
Meanwhile, I've moved on to Dick Francis' fourth novel, 1965's Odds Against. For Kicks was as good as advertised, featuring DF's first really cruel villain, but was a little heavy on the self-justification by protagonist Daniel Roke. Odds Against is significant because it first introduces Sid Halley, arguably Francis' most successful, most complex and most interesting hero. It also features one of the most memorable, horrifying scenes he wrote but I'll tell you more about that when I get to it. I'm still only about 70 pages in so there's lots more to come.
Halley is an ex-jockey, a champion, who had to give it up when he lost the use of one hand in a messy steeplechase accident. Scarred, both inside and out, Halley slowly works himself out of a deep depression to discover he's actually pretty good at the detection business. Maybe, just maybe, life is worth living after all, even if the life of a champion jockey is forever lost to him.
In Odds Against, Francis flexes his creative muscles while keeping the action galloping along. Halley proved so popular, meanwhile, that Francis brought him back in at least one later novel (Whip Hand), something he resisted doing with almost every other hero he created (for some reason, I think one other hero made a second appearance but I can't remember which: we'll figure it all out as I keep reading).
Great Canadian Voices
19/11/09 19:31 Filed in: Personal
One of the fantastic things about living in a city
like Fredericton (which is quite small yet the
provincial capital) is that you get a nice
combination of high quality attractions with
small-town convenience. We got a taste of this
Saturday night when we went to see the play
Marion Bridge at the local University's
theatre.
We got a full serving this past Wednesday night when, at the last minute, we picked up tickets to see Canadian songstress Chantal Kreviazuk at the city's 800-seat gem, The Playhouse. Now, Kreviazuk has been a big fave of mine since I saw the video for "Wayne", her first big single, and then bought that first album, under these rocks and stones, in 1996. This was my first chance to see her live and Patti and I were delighted at our good fortune to find two seats still available in row E, at the right-centre aisle.
The drive from our house to the Playhouse is maybe two minutes and, with only 800 seats and lots of street parking around the venue, we had no problems finding a spot. Talk about a great way to spend an evening out.
Perhaps surprisingly, though we went specifically to see Kreviazuk and thoroughly enjoyed her two-hour plus set, it's the music of her opening act, Meaghan Smith from London, Ontario, that we walked away with in our heads. Of course, we also picked up a copy of Smith's exceptional debut CD so that's helped with our ability to recall her tunes.
Smith is a revelation. She and her husband, to whom she refers as simply "my band" or "Mingo" (his last name), walk on stage and, after a quick hello, launch into it a 30-minute set of her own original songs, an interesting mix of '40s-style swing, old-time country and Feist-esque pop. Interspersed among the songs, Smith tells brief, funny stories about the background to each tune while Mingo shuffles various instruments in and out of her reach.
She's a talented song writer but what marks Smith as special is her voice. Wow. We could have listened to her rich, velvety voice all night: in fact, we practically listened to it all day today by playing and replaying the CD. We're fans of Canadian female performers like Feist, Melissa Stylianou and Holly Cole and I'd put Meaghan Smith along side any of them in their early careers.
After a much too long intermission (probably extended to allow the appreciative crowd time to swarm Smith's table and buy up her CDs, t-shirts and paintings), Kreviazuk then hit the stage. Accompanied by three musicians (one a percussionist, the second primarily on the violin along with guitar and piano and the third on the cello and guitar), the now-veteran (and it makes me feel old to write that) vocalist proved up to the standard Smith had set in the opening set and then some.
I have to admit, I'm not big on Kreviazuk's often long and self-indulgent monologues between songs and her tendency toward crudeness, but I have no argument with her voice, her piano playing or her songs. She's a special talent.
The show really hit its stride when drummer took a break, allowing Kreviazuk and her piano to stand out on their own. Kreviazuk is a passionate singer and her voice is what we came to hear. Her renditions of "Surrounded" (a personal favourite of mine from that first album), "Jet Plane" and the title song of her latest album (Plain Jane) were particularly fantastic.
As much as I struggled with the monologues, they did produce some interesting moments. When Kreviazuk brought a cell phone on-stage to telephone her three young sons in British Columbia as part of her introduction to one song, the audience practically curled up in her lap to enjoy the moment. Later, as Kreviazuk launched into the wonderful new song "Plain Jane", someone in the audience rattled some kind of pill or candy container. The sudden noise in the quiet room startled the performer, so much so that she stopped playing. She was clearly thrown off and seemed to have trouble getting past it, quizzing the audience about the incident. Though an awkward moment, it also showed to all of us just how invested Kreviazuk is in her live performances, how much of her soul she pours into the show.
It was also a nice touch that Kreviazuk made sure the other musicians got the chance to show off as well. Not only did she invite Smith on stage to perform background vocals for "God Made Me", she also allowed each of her accompanying musicians an opportunity either to feature prominently in one of her tunes (the drummer) or to perform one of their own. The violinist did a nice little folk number while the cello player wowed the crowd with an exceptional version of Joni Mitchell's "I Wish I had a River" (or whatever it's called).
The current tour continues in Ontario and the prairies into December, then does some makeup dates in Southwestern Ontario in February as well. If you can, catch the show, as much for the new talents you'll discover as for Chantal Kreviazuk, a true Canadian gem.
We got a full serving this past Wednesday night when, at the last minute, we picked up tickets to see Canadian songstress Chantal Kreviazuk at the city's 800-seat gem, The Playhouse. Now, Kreviazuk has been a big fave of mine since I saw the video for "Wayne", her first big single, and then bought that first album, under these rocks and stones, in 1996. This was my first chance to see her live and Patti and I were delighted at our good fortune to find two seats still available in row E, at the right-centre aisle.
The drive from our house to the Playhouse is maybe two minutes and, with only 800 seats and lots of street parking around the venue, we had no problems finding a spot. Talk about a great way to spend an evening out.
Perhaps surprisingly, though we went specifically to see Kreviazuk and thoroughly enjoyed her two-hour plus set, it's the music of her opening act, Meaghan Smith from London, Ontario, that we walked away with in our heads. Of course, we also picked up a copy of Smith's exceptional debut CD so that's helped with our ability to recall her tunes.
Smith is a revelation. She and her husband, to whom she refers as simply "my band" or "Mingo" (his last name), walk on stage and, after a quick hello, launch into it a 30-minute set of her own original songs, an interesting mix of '40s-style swing, old-time country and Feist-esque pop. Interspersed among the songs, Smith tells brief, funny stories about the background to each tune while Mingo shuffles various instruments in and out of her reach.
She's a talented song writer but what marks Smith as special is her voice. Wow. We could have listened to her rich, velvety voice all night: in fact, we practically listened to it all day today by playing and replaying the CD. We're fans of Canadian female performers like Feist, Melissa Stylianou and Holly Cole and I'd put Meaghan Smith along side any of them in their early careers.
After a much too long intermission (probably extended to allow the appreciative crowd time to swarm Smith's table and buy up her CDs, t-shirts and paintings), Kreviazuk then hit the stage. Accompanied by three musicians (one a percussionist, the second primarily on the violin along with guitar and piano and the third on the cello and guitar), the now-veteran (and it makes me feel old to write that) vocalist proved up to the standard Smith had set in the opening set and then some.
I have to admit, I'm not big on Kreviazuk's often long and self-indulgent monologues between songs and her tendency toward crudeness, but I have no argument with her voice, her piano playing or her songs. She's a special talent.
The show really hit its stride when drummer took a break, allowing Kreviazuk and her piano to stand out on their own. Kreviazuk is a passionate singer and her voice is what we came to hear. Her renditions of "Surrounded" (a personal favourite of mine from that first album), "Jet Plane" and the title song of her latest album (Plain Jane) were particularly fantastic.
As much as I struggled with the monologues, they did produce some interesting moments. When Kreviazuk brought a cell phone on-stage to telephone her three young sons in British Columbia as part of her introduction to one song, the audience practically curled up in her lap to enjoy the moment. Later, as Kreviazuk launched into the wonderful new song "Plain Jane", someone in the audience rattled some kind of pill or candy container. The sudden noise in the quiet room startled the performer, so much so that she stopped playing. She was clearly thrown off and seemed to have trouble getting past it, quizzing the audience about the incident. Though an awkward moment, it also showed to all of us just how invested Kreviazuk is in her live performances, how much of her soul she pours into the show.
It was also a nice touch that Kreviazuk made sure the other musicians got the chance to show off as well. Not only did she invite Smith on stage to perform background vocals for "God Made Me", she also allowed each of her accompanying musicians an opportunity either to feature prominently in one of her tunes (the drummer) or to perform one of their own. The violinist did a nice little folk number while the cello player wowed the crowd with an exceptional version of Joni Mitchell's "I Wish I had a River" (or whatever it's called).
The current tour continues in Ontario and the prairies into December, then does some makeup dates in Southwestern Ontario in February as well. If you can, catch the show, as much for the new talents you'll discover as for Chantal Kreviazuk, a true Canadian gem.