Friday, January 16, 2009

IDOW:: Norma MacDonald & Catherine MacLellan

Recently, we've been doing a bit of preview work for this year's edition of the In The Dead of Winter festival that's taking place here in Halifax at the end of the month. But thus far, we've kind of been focusing on acts that are new to the hill. I thought I'd mention a couple of fantastic ladies that we've already covered here on the hill, but are certainly deserving of further mention. Norma MacDonald and Catherine MacLellan will be playing at the Bus Stop theatre during IDOW (Saturday, Jan 31st)the same bill during IDOW, filling the opening slots for Ron Leary and Gypsophilia (who Bryan discussed a few weeks ago).

I reviewed Catherine's latest album, Church Bell Blues, a while ago (2007 in fact, time flies when no one reads your blog), and it got a deserving Stateside re-release last summer. The Ack and I have both taken a shot boosting Catherine and this album, so its only natural that we plug her IDOW show. Now that we've finally been there, I can say with confidence that the Bus Stop should be a perfect venue for her intimate storytelling.

As you might've gathered if you read the Ack's review of Norma MacDonald's new record The Forest For The Trees, the hill is fond of this new (to us) Halifax singer-songwriter. In fact I heard a song of hers on the CBC Radio a few months ago, and looked her up immediately on facebook when I got home and sent her a message asking her if we might review her album. Or at least I thought I did. I forgot to take into account that approximately 40% of the people in Nova Scotia have the last name MacDonald, and so, some other random Norma MacDonald, with no records at all, likely ended up wondering why I was bothering her. But no matter, Norma was kind enough to get in touch with us later on, and we are happy we could eventually help spread the word about her album and its abundance of country-tinged warmth.

So there you go, a re-introduction to a couple of great singer-songwriters. If you're in Halifax for IDOW, keep in mind this show starts bright and early at 7PM I believe. We're going to try and make it, I suggest you do the same.