Shadows and Light

A great double bill of female vocalists who have moved into the solo performer league performed for the Evergreen audience in the latest concert. They both have solid backgrounds behind them of long careers with well-known bands – Teresa as one of the Ennis Sisters and Sue with the Bird Sisters and this experience was clearly evident in their polished performances. They were both accompanied by Jeff Bird and Joel Hunt. See the photo gallery of Teresa Innes here and the Sue Smith one hereor read on for my impressions of the performances.

The show opened with Teresa’s cheerful and delightful rendition of Pete Townsend’s “Blue, Red and Grey” which set an upbeat and happy tone to her whole performance. She sang many old favourites and tracks from her CD “Space” including “Annie”, the folk standard “I’ve Endured”, “The Lowlands” accompanied by Jeff on harmonica, “Going to the Country” and “Ma Jolie”, as well as a lovely rendition of “Space” composed by Joel Hunt. Sue Smith played keyboards and added a rich harmony to many of Teresa’s pieces. You can hear “Space”, a track from her latest CD on her photo gallery that you can view here.

Sue Smith then took centre stage with her distinctive jazz/folk style, subtly changing the mood to that of a warm and sultry city nightclub. Sue started off with “I’m So”, the title track of her new CD followed by her song “Emily” – one of my favourites of her pieces, it is a moving and pensive musing she wrote after viewing an exhibition of Emily Carr’s paintings. Most of the songs she sang that night were from her “I’m So” CD, which she composed, performed and produced herself and all evidenced a satisfying rich depth and maturity. Particular favourites of ours were “One Thing I Know”, “I can’t Swim”, “Walking Away” and “Met him on a Train”. Teresa joined Sue on harmonising vocals for many of the pieces. You can hear a track “Shine” from Sue’s CD on her photo gallery that you can see here.

Many thanks for coming to the Evergreen that night, Teresa and Sue.

Ellie

Andrew White and Gillian Boucher’s appearance at the Evergreen was eagerly anticipated by those of us who had heard this amazing duo play on other occasions. We were not to be disappointed by their performance and I noted that even Andrew’s tuning of his guitar inspired enthusiastic applause! See the photo gallery of the concert here or read on for my impressions of the performance.

The show was opened for them by two Alberta based singer songwriters – James Murdoch from the Yukon and Nick Perreault who was originally from Newfoundland. They each played their own songs and accompanied each other. You can hear a track from Nick’s CD where James is also playing and singing on their photo gallery here.

Andrew played and sang several of our personal favourites including “Mysterious Ways” (which you can hear on his photo gallery), “Dangerous Mystery” and “When Christie Whelan sings” and his beautiful guitar playing had us enthralled on pieces such as “Spanish Gentleman” and “Digger’s Rag”

When the fabulous and renowned Cape Breton fiddler Gillian Boucher joined Andrew on the stage, this special combination really just took flight. Gillian’s dancing fingers complimented Andrew’s dexterity on the guitar to perfection, earning them a resounding standing ovation from the audience.

You can see the gallery of their performance and hear a track from Andrew’s CD “Andrew White Live” here.

Thanks to Andrew and Gillian as well as James and Nick for a great evening.

Ellie

Musique Royale, a summertime celebration of Nova Scotia’s musical heritage brings performances of early and traditional music to venues of historic and cultural significance in the province. The Evergreen Theatre has been included in their program for a few years now and this year brought us one of the highlight performances of the season in the persons of Chris Norman and David Greenberg. See the photo gallery of the concert here or read on for my impressions of the performance.

I began to run out of superlatives very soon into this joyous and exhilerating performance. Their stated mission for this concert was to give a three-dimensional program ranging from traditional Cape Breton and 18th Century Scottish music through European classical and Baroque. Our exhuberant journey started off with Chris singing Bannocks of Barley and proceeded through a wonderful selection of pieces by these virtuosos on the wooden flutes, Scottish small pipes, Estey harmonium and violin. Among them were gypsy tunes from the English border region with Scotland, a 15th Century battle tune, Harlow, and dance tunes from the Western Isles of Scotland. The traditional “Last Rose of Summer”, a sweet, sad piece sung by Chris was accompanied by harmonious humming from the audience and then moved smoothly to the lively notes of the final tune of the 1st half.

During the second half we had a variety of tunes including the amusing Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog and a medley of pieces performed by Chris or David or both, passing from player to player like graceful dancers performing perfectly choreographed moves. The final selection was about beer, fittingly it seemed on a warm summer night.

It was a special evening and a particular highlight for me was their rendition of (and my introduction to) the last two movements of the 18th Century Baroque Sonata in E minor by Georg Philipp Teleman. It was a delightful performance of warm deep notes and soaring sweet heights of breathtaking beauty.

Although the duo has not yet released a CD together, this is in the works and we are treated to a teaser track of the new CD entitled “Hacky Honey”, a border Gypsy tune on bagpipe and fiddle on their photo gallery of the night. here.

Thank you so much to both of these outstanding performers for such a special night.

Ellie