Weekend post #1--Catherine MacLellan CD release @ The Guild
I mentioned a few days ago that I was planning to go to Charlottetown for a Matt Mays show (well, of course I was!) What I didn't mention was, the friends who invited me over kind of sweetened the offer by adding that songwriter Catherine MacLellan had a CD release show earlier in the evening. I wasn't familiar with her songs but my friends were pretty high on her and it sounded like a good idea.
I got to Charlottetown just after 5:00, found my friends, went out to dinner (Cedars Lebanese cuisine--YUM!) and then two of us continued on to a theatre called The Guild for the Catherine MacLellan show.
Turned out there was an opening act, Meaghan Blanchard, another Island-based singer-songwriter who played one song that I caught on the ECMA broadcast last week. (She has a couple more songs up on PureVolume here.) She was delightful--very poised, with a likable stage presence and a really infectious air of being excited to be there, and I liked her songs very much. I didn't notice her EP for sale at the show so I just bought it from iTunes. Check out the two links above, I think she's a very promising songwriter and a good live performer, too. She was joined by a barefoot guitar player and a bassist.
Meaghan played six songs, including "Bonnie" (linked on her MySpace, which is the first link up there), one called "Worrying Me" whose title she said was going to be changed to "Rocks" because "Worrying Me" is surprisingly hard to pronounce clearly in an onstage introduction (she's right, try it) (I mean, not necessarily onstage. Just out loud), a couple of lovely songs about missing someone, and one "I wrote when I was really angry. And now I'm not angry anymore. Music Solves all my problems!--except for things like rent." (I'm sure a great many musicians--and writers--out there can sympathize.)
After Meaghan and friends left the stage, Catherine MacLellan came out with the same bass player, a different guitarist, and a drummer she referred to as the "PEI All-Star Band." Their only flaw was that none of them seemed to know any jokes--except the drummer, who may have learned his joke from either a third-grader or a WestJet flight attendant, but I digress.
I bought Catherine's new CD, Water In the Ground (which also includes her first CD, Dark Dream Midnight as a rerelease in the package.) There's a CD in the middle called Church Bell Blues which I'll probably go looking for.
There is press material on the linked site above, including a reference to Catherine's voice as "ethereal." Which is one of those adjectives that makes some people wonder, "Okay, exactly what does that sound like?"
I am now here to tell you, it sounds exactly like Catherine MacLellan.
She played about fourteen songs, including the two-song encore, with her all-star band (occasionally supplemented by Meaghan on backing vocals and a mandolin player.) Her songs have a lovely folky swing and her delivery manages to be beautifully serene even when the songs are frankly kind of heartbreaking. One was a really pretty one for her daughter Isabel, who helped decorate the stage curtains with cutouts of birds and the sun and various spring-like imagery (Catherine was especially taken with the paper grass attached to the front of the monitors.) A few of the songs were Catherine "being romantic about my childhood" or talking about love lost and found.
The songs were lovely, her stage presence was captivating, and I am about to go look up the third CD, Church Bell Blues with all speed.
It wasn't until almost the end of the show that my partner in crime mentioned to me that Catherine is the daughter of the late Gene MacLellan, a legendary Canadian songwriter. I felt like sort of an idiot for not knowing (or maybe remembering) that, but on second thoughts it was kind of nice to come to the show without any expectations of either performer. Verdict: delightful times two.
A list of Catherine's upcoming shows can be found on her Web site. I missed her show at the Carleton last week because I knew I was going to see Skank Williams, but right now I can't think of a good reason to miss the April 5th show in Halifax.
If I find shows by Meaghan Blanchard listed anywhere, I'll be sure to let you know.
Here's a photo from the evening:
Catherine is singing in the foreground, and there's Meaghan Blanchard at the right of the photo. (Incidentally, Meaghan's hair is not actually nuclear-red like it appears in the photo. It's a perfectly normal Anne Of Green Gables red. There must have been a lighting effect I didn't notice at the time.)
Oh, and score! I just found a video on YouTube that shows Meaghan singing part of "Bonnie," and Catherine singing "Hotel Stairs." (In the initial pan over the audience, it even shows me for a sec--I'll be the woman in the front row with the ponytail and the terrible posture. Eek.)
Ahem. The video is nicely representative of the artists:
I got to Charlottetown just after 5:00, found my friends, went out to dinner (Cedars Lebanese cuisine--YUM!) and then two of us continued on to a theatre called The Guild for the Catherine MacLellan show.
Turned out there was an opening act, Meaghan Blanchard, another Island-based singer-songwriter who played one song that I caught on the ECMA broadcast last week. (She has a couple more songs up on PureVolume here.) She was delightful--very poised, with a likable stage presence and a really infectious air of being excited to be there, and I liked her songs very much. I didn't notice her EP for sale at the show so I just bought it from iTunes. Check out the two links above, I think she's a very promising songwriter and a good live performer, too. She was joined by a barefoot guitar player and a bassist.
Meaghan played six songs, including "Bonnie" (linked on her MySpace, which is the first link up there), one called "Worrying Me" whose title she said was going to be changed to "Rocks" because "Worrying Me" is surprisingly hard to pronounce clearly in an onstage introduction (she's right, try it) (I mean, not necessarily onstage. Just out loud), a couple of lovely songs about missing someone, and one "I wrote when I was really angry. And now I'm not angry anymore. Music Solves all my problems!--except for things like rent." (I'm sure a great many musicians--and writers--out there can sympathize.)
After Meaghan and friends left the stage, Catherine MacLellan came out with the same bass player, a different guitarist, and a drummer she referred to as the "PEI All-Star Band." Their only flaw was that none of them seemed to know any jokes--except the drummer, who may have learned his joke from either a third-grader or a WestJet flight attendant, but I digress.
I bought Catherine's new CD, Water In the Ground (which also includes her first CD, Dark Dream Midnight as a rerelease in the package.) There's a CD in the middle called Church Bell Blues which I'll probably go looking for.
There is press material on the linked site above, including a reference to Catherine's voice as "ethereal." Which is one of those adjectives that makes some people wonder, "Okay, exactly what does that sound like?"
I am now here to tell you, it sounds exactly like Catherine MacLellan.
She played about fourteen songs, including the two-song encore, with her all-star band (occasionally supplemented by Meaghan on backing vocals and a mandolin player.) Her songs have a lovely folky swing and her delivery manages to be beautifully serene even when the songs are frankly kind of heartbreaking. One was a really pretty one for her daughter Isabel, who helped decorate the stage curtains with cutouts of birds and the sun and various spring-like imagery (Catherine was especially taken with the paper grass attached to the front of the monitors.) A few of the songs were Catherine "being romantic about my childhood" or talking about love lost and found.
The songs were lovely, her stage presence was captivating, and I am about to go look up the third CD, Church Bell Blues with all speed.
It wasn't until almost the end of the show that my partner in crime mentioned to me that Catherine is the daughter of the late Gene MacLellan, a legendary Canadian songwriter. I felt like sort of an idiot for not knowing (or maybe remembering) that, but on second thoughts it was kind of nice to come to the show without any expectations of either performer. Verdict: delightful times two.
A list of Catherine's upcoming shows can be found on her Web site. I missed her show at the Carleton last week because I knew I was going to see Skank Williams, but right now I can't think of a good reason to miss the April 5th show in Halifax.
If I find shows by Meaghan Blanchard listed anywhere, I'll be sure to let you know.
Here's a photo from the evening:
Catherine is singing in the foreground, and there's Meaghan Blanchard at the right of the photo. (Incidentally, Meaghan's hair is not actually nuclear-red like it appears in the photo. It's a perfectly normal Anne Of Green Gables red. There must have been a lighting effect I didn't notice at the time.)
Oh, and score! I just found a video on YouTube that shows Meaghan singing part of "Bonnie," and Catherine singing "Hotel Stairs." (In the initial pan over the audience, it even shows me for a sec--I'll be the woman in the front row with the ponytail and the terrible posture. Eek.)
Ahem. The video is nicely representative of the artists:
Click to view