Songwriters gather to share their work
Many people turn away from homelessness.
But when Donna Durand saw a destitute man standing at the corner of Gaetz Avenue and 52nd Street, she wrote a song about it.
She will share the tune, called Folded in Four, as well as the emotions that inspired it, with an audience during the first installment of the Songwriters Circle series at The Matchbox theatre in Red Deer.
The new circle series will run every other month in the intimate venue and spotlight some of the best in singing and songwriting in the city and the province.
It’ll be much more than a typical concert, promises Durand of Red Deer, who will perform on Wednesday with Celtic troubadour John Spearn of Edmonton and local folk-pop musician Curtis Phagoo.
“It’s sharing the back stories that inspired the music.”
The featured songwriters will sit on stage in a campfire formation, taking turns offering up their original songs and chatting about the process of writing them.
“It’ll be like sitting in somebody’s living room, watching musicians interact . . . evoking memories, emotions, and promoting good feeling and good will,” said Durand, who counts among her inspirations Alberta’s prairie landscape.
Audiences will get some insight into the music, she added, and songwriters will get some “closure” to the writing process.
“It’s like, this is my baby and you’re bringing it forward in a venue where people are genuinely interested.”
There will also be opportunities for audience interaction. “I don’t think Red Deer has had anything like this,” she added.
It was the intimacy of The Matchbox venue that inspired Durand to conceive the Songwriters Circle series.
She sprung the idea on some musician friends that she met through the East Coulee Spring Festival, and it took off.
Spearn said, “It’s a huge honour for me to be selected to play the opening.”
The natural balladeer has written half-a-dozen songs for the Alberta authorized Grade 7 social studies textbook. His inspirations are everything from the treatment of Chinese railroad workers to homesteaders, Louis Riel and the French loss on the Plains of Abraham.
Phagoo is described as a charismatic young singer who performs in a variety of styles, from rock to folk. “His songwriting is very clean and articulate and very heart-felt,” said Durand.
The second Songwriters Circle will run on July 30 with Edmonton’s Dana Wylie, whom Durand describes as a funky jazz-roots performer, cowboy country artist Tim Hus of Calgary, and Red Deer’s own Ian Stewart, who is known for playing the blues with his band the Swanjacks.
Among future performers slated to play The Matchbox’s Songwriting Circle are CKUA Radio hosts (and musicians) Andy Donnelly, who performs Celtic music, folkie Jan Randall, and jazz master Lionel Rault. The well-known CKUA trio are slated for November.
Durand promises each circle will bristle with its own energy. “Songwriting is an emotional outlet. Often times, we write because we are upset, or so happy we’re just spilling over . . . each song recounts an experience.”
Contact Lana Michelin at lmichelin@reddeeradvocate.com
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