Acoustic Christmas rings out at The Hub
As we head toward the busy Christmas season, live roots music choices become fewer and farther between, but here’s a few to keep you going through December.
The annual Acoustic Christmas Benefit Concert for the Red Deer Food Bank and Art from the Streets occurs tonight at The Hub.
A wide range of Alberta roots music talent, including Back Porch Swing, Prairie’s Edge, Darren Johnson and Joal Kamps, performs. Admission is $10 ($20 for a family), plus a non-perishable food item for the food bank.
Tonight at The Hideout, you’ll find the frantic rockabilly with Hurricane Felix & the Southern Twisters, as well as the bluesy sounds of guitarist and singer Erin Ross. An early show on Monday features Jen Lane and Smoke Killer.
Also at The Hideout on Dec. 8, the annual Highway 3 Roots Revue featuring three of Alberta’s great singer-songwriters — Dave McCann, Leeroy Stagger, and John Wort Hannam — assemble for an evening’s worth of engaging music and story.
Dec. 10 has Steve Arsenault holding down The Hideout stage while the adroit Ben Sures drops in on Dec. 15.
This week’s disc review:
Natalie MacMaster
Cape Breton Girl
eOne Music
How can one not love Natalie MacMaster?
With her soul and music essentially entrenched in the culture and history of Cape Breton, it is inconceivable that Natalie MacMaster be viewed as anything but a Cape Breton Girl.
Her recording output has been impacted in recent years by domestic concerns and extensive touring and collaborations with artists including Thomas Dolby and Yo-Yo Ma. As such, Cape Breton Girl serves as only the third set of new music from MacMaster in the last decade.
Fortunately, while the quantity of her music has not been great, the quality has remained unmistakably stellar.
With fiddle and piano at its core, Cape Breton Girl serves as a welcome return to the fabric of her music. While a dozen different musicians have their talents woven throughout the recording, the focus is firmly on MacMaster’s interpretation of timeless reels, airs, and jigs.
As always, her playing is lively and impassioned. One hardly needs to be a student of fiddling and Cape Breton music to feel an electric connection to these sounds. Alex MacMaster’s Jig — written for her father and incorporating Janet Beaton and Miss Ann Campbell — is a spirited set of fiddle and piano sounds with just a flavouring of guitar. Stoney Lake Reels follows a similar theme but has more embellishment with the addition of some solid bass playing.
MacMaster has a knack for finding tunes that complement each other. F Medley is comprised of seven old melodies brought together to reveal the intricacies and shades of traditional Cape Breton sounds. The album’s only vocal track is a brief reading of Our Father featuring Jeff MacDonald.
Whether performing Jigs in G (Jimmy MacKinnon of Smelt Brook) or something more emotive based on traditional tunes (Pretty Marion, The Methlick Style), MacMaster reveals — much as does Alison Krauss — that beyond the buoyant personality and ‘ah, shucks’ demeanour, there beats the heart of a passionate and focused artist who lives to breathe beautiful life into ancient tones.
Donald Teplyske is a local freelance writer who contributes a twice-monthly column on roots music; visit fervorcoulee.wordpress.com for additional reviews. If you know a roots music event of which he should be aware, contact him at fervorcoulee@shaw.ca
