Thursday, January 14, 2010

IDOW:: The Abramson Singers

One of the great and sadly underrated festivals here in Halifax is the ice cold In the Dead of Winter Festival that tries valiantly to warm our January nights. This year, the organizers went above and beyond and signed up a bunch of terrific artists that everyone knows (Ani, John. K Samson, Jim Bryson and Justin Rutledge) but there are a ton of lesser known acts that you should think about seeing.

One of those acts is The Abramson Singers. When I was in Vancouver, Leah Abramson played in some great bands (Dyad was always a treat to see) and was kind of the West Coast Julie Fader when it came to being recruited to guest on tracks. Her voice is so pure that she is able to create layer after layer of harmonies and meld them into a beautiful (and equally dense) musical experience.

She's getting ready to release her record on White Whale, and thirty minutes of music she offers up on the self-titled release are pretty amazing. She can deliver amazing vocal dynamics (like the opening number, Take a Camera, Trucker's Prayer and Old Maids) but is just as comfortable fronting a more traditional folk offering (By the River) or dark swirling numbers like Fool's Gold, but for me the album stand-out is her stellar take on the Wiseman number, You Don't Love Me. Leah stands front and center, but when the harmonies kick in it sounds like she is fronting the Deep Dark Woods. The whole album is enjoyable, but when this song comes on I can't focus on anything else. It's probably my favorite song of the new year.

She and David Sikula will be playing Jan 29th @ The Company House with Klarka Weinwurm, the always amazing Melissa McLelland, and Del Barber. Seeing how she transforms the meticulously recorded layers of harmonies should be a real treat.

Click here for the entire IDOW schedule.