IDOW:: Recap Night 1

The second annual In the Dead of Winter festival kicked off last night and certainly lived up to its name, delivering both a horrendous storm and some fantastic music. We dropped into The Company House to pick up our passes and the venue is beautiful. Intimate and warm, it really felt inviting, but we jumped across the street to see the songwriter circle featuring Halifax’s Ryan MacGrath, Brooklyn’s Ana Egge and Ottawa’s Lynne Hanson.

Before getting into this, hats off to the organizers because this circle featured three diverse acts and the change of sound really helped the intimate session keep moving. All too often these things seem like a fantastic idea, but the folk stylings tend to blend together after a few rounds.

Last night, Ryan’s Rufus Wainright, Neil Diamond-ish croon boomed and Lynne’s more tried and true folk helped the crowd tap their feet, but for me the highlight was getting to see Ana Egge play for such a small crowd and so stripped down.

Her voice is fantastic and she was fun and charming, well except for the fact she made us all picture Dubya having sex. She played tracks from her new album, including the Farmer’s Daughter, a nice spiritual (inspired by a new found patriotism thanks to whole Obama family) and my favorite song (Motorcycle).

For anyone still unsure of which venue to crash tonight, Ana and Christina Martin would be strongly recommended by herohill.


Up next was Bend the River. Honestly, I'm not sure why these guys aren't more popular. They play soulful roots tunes that really deserve a bigger audience. I don't toss around names like Van Morrison or The Band haphazardly, but that type of praise isn't that far off base.

I loved their record, and with the organ booming from the mix last night, I found their live set even better. This is an act I'm going to be following carefully.



We ended the night by swinging over to the Cohn to catch Al Tuck play with an 8-piece band. Obviously, most of us are used to seeing Al stand alone with a guitar so the large setting was quite surprising... for the audience as well as Al. Having to walk back and forth to the amp was flustering Tuck, but once the band started playing it was all good.

The stark contrast of his dapper silver vest and black pants/shirt combo against amber lights and sepia toned vibe the band and songs gave off put Al in the spotlight, but kept the performance intimate and warm. As Shane mentioned yesterday, Al has influenced a lot of the artists in the Canadian scene (quite obvious as you scanned the room and saw Joel Plaskett, Kyle Cunjak, Matt Epp, Ruth Minnikin and countless others musicians braving the elements to see him play) and the crowd was almost too silent out of respect for Tuck. After each song, the crowd waited for Al to say something or allowed for only a polite golf clap. But with guitar, lap steel, congos, drums and keys... it was easy to see why some people might have been left speechless.

Labels: IDOW