Durham County Poets – Grimshaw Road

DURHAM COUNTY POETS

Grimshaw Road

durhamcountypoets.com

Ormstown, Quebec, a small town in the Chateauguay Valley about an hour or so southwest of Montreal, has a music scene that is seemingly out of proportion to its size and the finest band to come out of that scene is the Durham County Poets, a five-piece unit whose mostly original repertoire encompasses such styles as folk, blues, rock, swing and gospel – often mixed and matched within the same song.

I quite liked the Poets’ first two albums. Both Where the River Flows, released in 2012, and Chikkaboodah Stew, from 2014, were full of good songs and fine performances. But, their brand new release, Grimshaw Road, is their best yet. With more than five years of performing together, they’ve really gelled as a band and their songwriting – each of them contributes or collaborates – is stronger than ever.

The band is fronted by lead singer Kevin Harvey, a naturally laid back vocalist who nails the essence of whatever song he’s singing, bringing it to life in a way that serves the music and, particularly, the lyrics. He’s well supported by guitarists David Whyte and Neil Elsmore, bassist Carl Rufh and drummer Jim Preimel. Several of the band members occasionally double on other instruments and there are some guest musicians on some tracks including producer John McColgan on percussion and veteran Montreal saxophonist Jody Golick.

The album opens with the band in blues mode on “Grimshaw Road,” in which the singer relates a late-night encounter with the devil. It sounds like it could be an encounter like Robert Johnson’s mythologized visit to the crossroads, but the narrator here hears the sound of a heavenly choir and is guided away by an angel.

A few of my favorite songs on the album include the contemplative “Streets and Sidewalks,” which is reminiscent of early James Taylor; the infectious “Monday Morning,” a swinging blues about a workingman starting his week; the jazzy “Bowl Full of Lazy,” which sounds like it could have come from one of Tom Waits’ early LPs; and “Outside Cat,” a jump blues that could be taken literally as a description of an actual cat prowling the neighborhood or metaphorically as a hipster description of someone living by his own rules.

In addition to the original material there are two songs not written by members of the Durham County Poets. Both are great performances and both feature guest vocalists in duet with Kevin. On a beautiful version of the late Penny Lang’s “Diamonds on the Water,” they are joined by Michael Jerome Browne (I presume this is one of the songs they’ll perform on June 15 at the Montreal Folk Fest on the Canal’s tribute concert to Penny) and their version of Blind Willie Johnson's “On Your Bond,” with Suzie Vinnick, comes from deep in the gospel well.

One minor complaint: The CD digipac and lyric booklet feature black-and-white photos – which I quite like – but the lettering for the credits and lyrics are in white and, unfortunately, white lettering on a black-and-white background is frequently difficult to read.

Among the stops on the Durham County Poets’ series of album-launching concerts is a show here in the Ottawa area on Friday, June 16, 8 pm, at the Black Sheep Inn in Wakefield.

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--Mike Regenstreif

Ottawa Grassroots Festival – April 27-28

The Ottawa Grassroots Festival, a small volunteer-run, family-oriented springtime folk festival spearheaded by Bob Nesbitt, will return Saturday-Sunday April 27-28 for its second year. This year it’s taking place at the Rideau Curling Club, 715 Cooper Street in Ottawa. 

The daytime events, centred on workshops, kid-friendly concerts and a contra dance, are free of charge. Tickets for the Saturday night concert are $25. The Sunday night tickets are $15 and passes for both nights are $35.

Among the artists participating in the daytime activities on Saturday will be Missy Burgess, Ana Miura, Amanda Rheaume, Wendell Ferguson, Suzie Vinnick, Amanda Bon, Ed Lawrence, Chris White, Selina Bishop, Hollis Morgan, Mary Gick, Arthur McGregor, Pat Moore, and Folka Voca.

The Saturday night concert features performances by Ottawa singer-songwriters Ana Miura and Amanda Rheaume followed by Wendell Ferguson, a great guitarist and humourist, and folk and blues MVP Suzie Vinnick.

Sunday daytime events will feature workshops, concerts for kids, a contra dance, a Spirit of Rasputin’s open stage, Gil’s hootenanny and more. The Sunday night concert will feature several choirs.

Visit ottawagrassrootsfestival.com for all the details.

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--Mike Regenstreif

The Way We Feel – The Songs of Gordon Lightfoot

Gordon Lightfoot was still in the relatively early stages of his career as a major folk-rooted singer-songwriter when my own musical interests began to centre on the folk scene. His third LP, Did She Mention My Name, was the first of Lightfoot’s albums that I bought new when it first came out in 1968 and I quickly acquired the first two and many of the ones that followed. His 1960s albums, and several from the ‘70s, still resonate particularly strongly with me.

Over the past decade, Toronto-based singer-songwriter Jory Nash has organized an annual tribute concert at Hugh’s Room in Toronto, in which a revolving cast of artists, and a house band, each do a pair of Lightfoot songs. Lightfoot himself has shown up occasionally and performed a couple of songs – including last Sunday, the third of a three-night stand.

Last night, Jory Nash brought The Way We Feel – The Songs of Gordon Lightfoot to Centrepointe Theatre in Ottawa. Interestingly, although there was overlap, the roster of artists was substantially different from the Hugh’s Room shows last weekend.

MC David Newland, who opened the show with a song and did a great job of keeping the show flowing, and the superb house band – guitarist Jason Fowler, pianist David Matheson, bassist David Woodhead, and Christine Bougie, who switched between drums and lap steel – as well as featured artists Lori Cullen, John Wort Hannam, Jory Nash, and Andy Maize & Josh Finlayson of the Skydiggers, were on the Hugh’s Room bill. The additional artists in Ottawa were Cadence, Rick Fines, Oh Susanna and Suzie Vinnick (fresh from winning a couple of Maple Blues Awards last week). Band members Jason Fowler and David Matheson also took turns in the spotlight with a couple of songs each.

In the hundreds of songs Lightfoot has written and recorded over his long career, the artists had a wealth of material to choose from and included several of his best known songs and several of the more obscure.

Certainly, the evening’s high point was when the entire cast gathered on stage at the end for gospel-style version of “Rich Man’s Spiritual,” which Jory Nash pointed out was the first song on Lightfoot’s first album. Each verse was led by a different artist or group of artists, with everyone else joining in and leading the audience on the call-and-response parts. It was a joyous moment and a perfect finale.

Among the other highlights were Jory’s solo version of “Mother of a Miner’s Child,” Lori Cullen’s jazz ballad version of “Rainy Day People,” Rick Fines’ soulful rendition of “Ribbon of Darkness,” which included some sublime slide guitar playing, Oh Susanna’s country version of “Early Morning Rain,” John Wort Hannam’s lovely solo rendition of "Your Love’s Return" and Suzie Vinnick’s electrified take on “If You Could Read My Mind.”

In all honesty, there were a couple of arrangements that didn’t work for me. Lori Cullen’s disco version of “Song for a Winter’s Night” robbed the song of the beauty of its quiet intimacy. And I really wished that a cappella quartet Cadence had just concentrated on the lyrics to “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” instead of also using their voices to imitate the musical instruments – the net effect was to lose much of the impact of the song’s story.

In a concert that included just 22 songs, there were so many great Lightfoot songs left unsung. No wonder this show can be mounted annually without losing its freshness.

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--Mike Regenstreif

Jory Nash – Little Pilgrim

JORY NASH

Little Pilgrim

Thin Man

jorynash.com

Little Pilgrim is Jory Nash’s seventh album since his 1998 debut. As I noted in a 2007 review of his Folk Jazz Blues & Soul in Sing Out! magazine, I’ve enjoyed watching – and particularly listening – as the Toronto-based singer-songwriter has matured into an artist of substance.

Jory had come a long way as a singer-songwriter when I made that observation almost six years ago and he’s come further since. Little Pilgrim is an elegant collection of well-crafted songs – many of which recall the early-1970s when artists like James Taylor, Paul Simon and so many others blended folk and pop music influences to create songs that were at once both personal and universal and which reached beyond the insipidness typical of most popular music.

Among my favourite songs on Little Pilgrim are “The Long Siesta,” in which Jory’s narrator, a criminal who’s been lying low among the tourists in the sun, plots his return to action; “Truth,” a sweet, jazzy piano-based late-night reflection influenced – as Jory acknowledges – by early Tom Waits and Billy Joel; and “Take Me Back to Monticello,” inspired by a childhood trip taken with his family.

Also among the most impressive songs are “Little Pilgrim,” in which the character finds some kind of redemption in a religious experience; “Sally,” a plea for forgiveness inspired by a night of Randy Newman songs; and “Helicopters Circling,” an angry commentary about what happened to civil liberties in Toronto in 2010 when the G20 Summit came to town.

Each song is meticulously and individually arranged with outstanding work by Jory and a group of studio musicians and harmony singers including Jason Fowler, David Matheson, Christine Bougie, co-producer Chris Stringer, Lori Cullen and Suzie Vinnick.

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--Mike Regenstreif