Shadows and Light

Dan introduced himself as being like the original troubadours roaming the country sharing the stories of the people with the people and he did this skillfully both in song and tales of sea, land and friendships. His finger style guitar was a perfect accompaniment to his rich baritone which rang through the Evergreen taking full advantage of the natural acoustics of the venue. See the photo gallery of the performance here or read on for my impressions of the performance.

This concert was also the CD launch for his latest release “Just Another Day” and on the night he regaled us with songs from this as well as many favourites from old recordings, including songs from his award winning “Fields of Dreams and Glory”. His storytelling skills had the audience hanging on the edge of their seats with his tales of Oak Island and the treasure that lies hidden there, the heartrending story of the the tragic Halifax explosion which perfectly transitioned to his song ‘Remember Me’ and many others.

You can hear a track from Dan’s new CD “Just Another Day” entitled ‘When the Under-run is Done’ on the photo gallery of his performance that you can see here.

Another enjoyable performance by a very talented Nova Scotia musician. Thanks Dan.

Ellie

There was a feeling of high anticipation the night of Morgan Davis’ performance at the Evergreen and the evening was everything we expected – and more. The theatre was packed once again which was no surprise for the return visit of this popular and accomplished performer to this venue. A veteran Blues singer originally from the US, Morgan has made our province his home for a number of years now and has written a well-known song about his love for the place – Nova Scotia – which is frequently played on CBC radio. See the photo gallery of the performance here or read on for my impressions of the performance.

Morgan described the Evergreen Theatre as a place having a lot of Soul and he added a lot of his own on that night. A very compelling performer, Morgan featured many well-known songs including Stagger Lee, Albert Kyle’s “I’ll Play the Blues for You”, “Bright Lights, Big City”, “Hey Hey!”. It was an upbeat, rich and funky performance of the Blues from someone who was once asked “How can you be so white and so funky?”. A truly brilliant night’s entertainment, thanks so much Morgan.

You can hear a track from Morgan’s CD Painkiller entitled Driving the Backroads on the photo gallery of his performance that you can see here.

Ellie.

All who hesitated about coming out to the Evergreen Theatre to hear a concert of Ukulele and Cello music and decided to take that leap of faith and come, were surely not disappointed. The theatre attracts performers who are outstanding in their particular genres and James Hill was no exception, judging by the good sized crowd, some of whom were Ukulele aficionados who had come a good distance to see this virtuoso pair perform. See the photo gallery of the performance here or read on for my impressions of the performance.

If any in the audience were expecting an evening of Hawaiian music (or George Formby cleaning windows) then they were to be surprised though certainly not disappointed by the performance. It is not unusual for performers to include in their repertoire music relating to different countries around the world and James Hill did exactly that. Starting with a tune from Truro NS based composer Chalmers Doane “Uke Talk” he then whisked us to South America for a one note Ukulele and Cello Samba. During this he demonstrated the versatility of the Ukulele in an amazing one man band style playing the Uke even as drums.His composition “Song for Cheri”, which started off in an introspective quiet mood, developing into a happy-go-lucky tune and as for all his tunes that night he had audience provided percussion in the appreciative foot-tapping.

Moving next to the Southern USA, he sang and played an unusual and rather interesting rendition of Oh! Susanna, with the Uke on his knee and then after a playful Little Piggie song he moved us all to Greece where we could practically taste the Ouzo while listening to the Greek Folk dance. From Greece it was a hop, skip and jump to Japan and a haunting rendition of a Japanese folk song about the Cherry Blossoms – Sakura Sakura. Everyone expects a Hawaiian Ukulele tune and James did not disappoint but put his own twist on the tune and the title “Crazy G” which became “Crazy A” (eh?). James was accompanied by Anne Davison on Cello and the music playing on the gallery here features them both in a composition of James’, the middle part of “One Small Suite for Ukulele” off his CD A Flying Leap, which is a beautiful suite with exquisitely delicate moments. The evening was wonderfully unique and entertaining and one that we will remember. Thank you James and Anne. We hope to see you again.

You can see the photo gallery of the evening here.

Ellie.