8 Apr 2009 Duck Creek Gallery Salt Spring Island, British Columbia 10 Apr 2009 50/50 Collective Victoria, British Columbia 11 Apr 2009 Blim (Prairie Cat Will Be at This One Too) Vancouver, British Columbia 12 Apr 2009 Little Mountain Studios Vancouver, British Columbia 14 Apr 2009 TBA Osoyoos, British Columbia 17 Apr 2009 Broken Jug Calgary, Alberta 18 Apr 2009 The Hydeaway Edmonton, Alberta 19 Apr 2009 All Citizens Bruno, Saskatchewan 21 Apr 2009 The Exchange Regina, Saskatchewan 22 Apr 2009 Lo Pub Winnipeg, Manitoba 23 Apr 2009 The Apollo Thunder Bay, Ontario
Ok, so maybe you didn't know she was in the Yukon, but she is and if you want to know why or what she's doing there, there is a Blog on Eclaim! that will explain it all to you and give you updates on what she's up to.
"For the month of February, I'm living in Dawson City, Yukon as the DCMF Songwriter-in-Residence. Dawson's winter population is even smaller than the 1300 listed in the census, so it's a bit of a change for city-girl me! It's also been going hitting -40 Celsius, meaning up to 20 minutes of layering before going outside. While I'm here, I'll be playing a couple of concerts, and working with grade schoolers at Robert Service School. If I have any free time, I plan to volunteer with the Yukon Quest dog sled race. Let's see how much I can get done in 7 hours of daily light!"
Ok, it's only blog-like - there is no XML feed to tell you when it's been updated, and the ads are a little much but ... alot of Canadian media sites only kind of get the web thing half way and it's the best way to keep up with Laura's doings in the cold!
Laura Barrett - Robot Ponies
Concept by Laura Barrett and Ajay Mehra - Directed by Jared Sales and Laura Barrett - Art Direction and Postproduction by Chris de Castro - Camera by Brian Nugent, Ajay Mehra and Jared Sales
The Globe and Mail's Robert Everett-Green did a lovely article yesterday on the Life and Times of Canada's Sexiest Musician Laura Barrett. Give it a read and find things you never knew before.
" I grew up surrounded by singers and dancers," one of whom was her mother, Barrett says. "My father ran a dinner theatre, His Majesty's Feast, on Lake Shore Boulevard. It doesn't exist any more, but it was around for 18 years. They would pipe in medieval music as you were coming in and being seated, but all the songs were pilfered from stage musicals of the time."
Steeped in the family business of putting over a song, she studied piano and clarinet, and throughout high school wrote her own songs, including one (she won't say which) that eventually found a place on Victory Garden. She still has masses of audio tape from the song-storming sessions of her teenage years.
"My songs generally were very melodramatic, like forties Broadway," she said of those early efforts. "I would just sit there and improvise and write lyrics. I would never perform them in front of anybody but my mother. She has always encouraged me to express myself. All my musical tastes, from zero to age 17, were basically hers."
I got a reminder from Fuzzy Logic that Laura Barrett is playing at the Horseshoe tonight. I can't make it myself, but I felt it was my duty to pass this on for those of you lucky enough to be looking for something to do.
Laura will be going on first, followed by Valery Gore and Josh Reichmann Oracle Band. According to Fuzzy Logic, Laura's band tonight will include Ajay Mehra on Banjo, Randy Lee on violin and Dana Snell playing flute and singing back up!!
So, the other day I mentioned the 2008 CBC Radio 3 Bucky Award winners. I also mentioned that there were a few awards left to go, but I never put them up. So watch the video below to get the last few - most notably at all Laura Barrett was voted the 'Sexiest Canadian Musician for 2008' - This is such a good country. = )
There are alot of "Sessions" on the CBC Radio 3 site, but once a week they take one of them and put it out as a podcast. This week's is Laura Barrett (regular readers of this blog will, rightly, detect some favouritism).
Video from Laura Barrett's CD release for 'Victory Garden' at the Tranzac in Toronto. As I've mentioned you can hear the entire concert at CBC Radio 2's concerts on demand. You can also but a copy on Zunior and vote for Laura (and other great Canadian artists) at the CBC Radio 3 Bucky Awards.
If you weren't able to make Laura Barrett's CD launch for the (soon to be Polaris nominated) Victory Garden now you can be (kinda). The show has been uploaded to CBC Radio 2's Concerts on Demand!
Both of the opening acts for the release were also included! So first have a listen to Dan Werb (of Woodhands).
Laura Barrett has fully arrived with her new CD "Victory Garden". While her EPs Earth Sciences and Ursula were both very good there was a sense that she was experimenting and introducing all of us to the kalimba. Now that we know what the instrument sounds like she has moved on and incorporated the african thumb piano (as well as her lovely voice) into fuller, more orchestrated music.
In addition to the kalimba, Victory Garden features piano, xylophone and glockenspiel, percussion brass, woodwinds and strings as well as backing vocals by Basia Bulat. In total Barrett has created something totally her own, reminiscent of nothing except what is going on in her own head but thoroughly accessible and a pleasure to listen to from the first track to the last.
It is impossible to say what sounds we may hear from other artists during the next year but I can already say with certainty that if this brilliant, smart and wholly original album isn't on the Polaris Short List for 2009 the award (which is supposed to be based solely on artistic achievement) will cease to mean anything.
Here is a bit of what other people think about Victory Garden Exclaim
"There’s a temptation to compare her to Kate Bush but Barrett is her own woman. Where her introductory EP, Earth Sciences, had people worried that a full-length would be more of the same, but longer, that’s nowhere near the case. ... From Veda Hille to Christine Fellows and now Laura Barrett, the literate, vibrant and brave female songwriters of Canada are having a hell of a year. "
"To know Laura Barrett is love to Laura Barrett...Riding high on swoony melancholy and offset by cinematic shimmers of strings and woodwinds, the pervading plunk of Barrett’s kalimba plays like a children’s music box in double time, wisely employed as an accent rather than punctuation. "
"I love Laura Barrett. I really do. But I've got to admit was a little skeptical about how well her sound would wear over the course of a full-length album. After all, on her debut EP, the quirkiness (who else plays thumb piano?) was almost as big a a selling point as the songwriting (though she certainly wasn't hurt by the presence of an unforgettably catchy song like "Robot Ponies"). Would it stand up over twice as many songs and twice the running length?
One listen to Victory Garden shows that the answer is a resounding yes. In fact, if anything, it stands up a lot better, since you have time to get over the novelty of the instrument. Even if you spend the first fifteen minutes being amazed that kalimbas lend themselves so well to pop music, that still leaves you with another eight songs and a half hour to revel in what Barrett has created."
"Its dreamy, rounding sound weaves with Barrett's tip-toeing vocal style. But added to the thumb piano on Victory Gardenare orchestral layers of sound: the singer's own adept piano-playing and other instruments from theremin, autoharp (courtesy of Basia Bulat, who also sings on the album), oboe and viola (provided by fellow Hidden Camera Lief Mosbaugh), cello and brass. Co-producer/arranger Paul Aucoin (Hylozoists) plays vibraphone throughout, too. The singing style suggests the strictly bizarre, whimsical and dallying progress through an imaginary place, a dreamscape or the garden (as depicted on the cover). But closer listening reveals some cutting critiques, skepticism and grounding in the real world---hardly the stuff of the innocent---reminiscent of Jane Siberry. "
As a special treat, because you read all the way to the end, I'll also mention that I (Heart) Music has posted recordings of a live performance by Laura at this years NXNE.
This Sunday at the Tranzac in Toronto, Laura Barrett will unveil her new album "Victory Garden" over brunch. People will gather at 11:30 a.m. for a brunch catered by Barrett herself and then at 1:30 the music starts. Dan Werb of the Woodhands and Halifax's Ghost Bees will be joining Laura for the CD release.
Unlike Barretts previous EPs "Victory Garden" will feature a full band including Werb, Basia Bulat.
"Barrett’s debut long-player (her EP Earth Sciences was re-released by Paper Bag in February) Victory Garden offers 13 originals and the addition of a full band — fleshed out by local players like Dan Werb, Basia Bulat and Paul Aucoin. Riding high on swoony melancholy and offset by cinematic shimmers of strings and woodwinds, the pervading plunk of Barrett’s kalimba plays like a children’s music box in double time, wisely employed as an accent rather than punctuation. Her emphatic storytelling works two ways: musical theatre monologue (“The Sharper Side” marries Sweeney Todd with Dancer in the Dark), and piano-bar camp (“Rien A Declarer” holds a franglais charm), aided by the ephemeral harmonies of Ghost Bees’ Sari and Romy Lightman. Though it sounds ready-made for book-club kids, Victory Garden is a compelling album even if you haven’t done all the required reading."
"Victory Garden refers to two things: the general concept of a garden describes the rich symphonic mixture of sounds created by this more communal gathering of musicians, with the cover art illustrating that it is a more collective enterprise than my solo efforts.
Also, the title refers to the victory gardens of wartime, as we are seeing a move toward small-scale, more sustainable farming and agriculture, and we also see a world still embroiled in war and conflict that dedicates resources toward death and not life. The Victory Garden is a hopeful act, but carries with it cynicism about humanity's development."
Laura's new album Victory Garden will arrive on September 23. According to that same e-newsletter the track listing will go something like this:
01 Wood Between Worlds 02 Consumption 03 Spoiler Alert 04 Chidiya 05 Bluebird 06 A Certain Major Vinylsky 07 Ferryland 08 The Sharper Side 09 Space Seed: The Musical 10 Escape to the Sun Dome 11 Rien A Declarer 12 To The Stars!
The Six Shooter Records showcase featuring Christine Fellows, Justin Rutledge, Elliott Brood, Luke Doucet, NQ Arbuckle, Melissa McClelland, and Martin Tielli - recorded at the Ottawa Blues Fest has been posted to CBC's Radio 2's Concerts on Demand.
Really just passing this along from Chart (stole their headline and everything) but Laura Barrett is releasing her first full-length album (the soon to be Polaris nominated) Victory Garden on Sept. 23 via Paper Bag Records.
She was supported by a wide range of guests, including: Basia Bulat on autoharp and vocals; Randy Lee (The Bicycles, Hylozoists) on violin; Jeremy Strachan (Feuermusik) on clarinet; Lief Mosbaugh (The Hidden Cameras) on oboe and viola; and John Tielli (Metal Kites) on theremin. Hylozoist Paul Aucoin recorded and mixed Victory Garden in addition to playing the vibraphone.
Oh...also a few dates:
Aug. 14 Toronto, ON @ Hugh's Room w/Royal Wood
Aug. 16 Toronto, ON @ The Theatre Centre w/Sunparlour Players
Sept. 20 London, ON @ Victoria Park (LOLA Festival)
According to Kids on TV the whole thing was a resounding success.
Well the festival is over and done now. It was a good opportunity for our record co-op Blocks, and Toronto labels, Fuzzy Logic & Out of This Spark to work together. It was great for us to combine efforts to help out Sketch. An artist studio for homeless and street-involved youth that I teach a dance program out of.
It was awesome to have artists from Sketch perform on the stage alongside artists from Blocks Recording Club. One of them said "I've never performed on a stage this big before". It was good to have those communities come together. See the kids freak out to Nifty's set and fall in love with the Phonemes.
It was particularly rewarding to do this apart from NXNE. Which is a giant music festival / industry schmooze & snooze fest. It is good to be working with people who resist that and instead throw a fundraiser for a rad organization in the city. Thanks to everyone who supported and came out.
The event raised $1000.00. It will be donated to sketch and will go towards a recording compilation. The artists who use sketch have been recording music at the studio located there, and have wanted to put out a compilation of their work. With the money we raised, they can. Thank you!
Congratulations to everyone involved. Hopefully Better Reasons will become an annual tradition. While I can't see it ever being a threat to NXNE, it is a nice addition to that weekend - giving people a chance to hear great music and give something back at the same time.
Running alongside NXNE is the Better Reasons Festival. I don't know the story behind the name but if I was going to guess, or make something up, I'd say that it has something to do with having a festival for a reason other than promotion and tourism. The Better Reasons Festival is a fundraiser for Sketch"a Toronto based organization which creates art making opportunities for young people who live street-involved and homeless or who are considered to be at risk."
All of the shows are at the Tranzac and all are pay what you can. The lineup looks alot like this:
Bike Pirates - will be setting up 3 stations outside the Tranzac for the night offering FREE tune-ups for your two wheeled buddy! - any donations made will be forwarded to SKETCH.)
Doors at 8 PM _____________________________________________ Friday June 13th - Fuzzy Logic Recordings presents :
Doors at 8 PM (stick around for fireworks after the show!!! ...shhhh) _____________________________________________ Saturday June 14th - Blocks Recording Club presents:
Doors at 5 PM There is a BBQ feast that begins at 5.
Scraps From Boil Street (as described by Juliann Wilding)
Boil Street: Largely considered to be a ghetto. Many sites left vacant by demolition during the 1970s were never redeveloped, leaving the area with a patchwork of vacant lots, parking lots and a few buildings that escaped demolition: the prison, the peep shows. Boil Street the grey area, tolerated but ignored.
But someone lives there - there's a liquor store, and loads of garbage, and if you hang out long enough, a bunch of freaks start to emerge from the muck...
Scraps From Boil Street are short productions serving as prequel to a full-length puppet musical currently in development, Don't Go Down to Boil Street, by Juliann Wilding and Henry Fletcher, starring Lil' Scurvy, Crups, The Crapper, and more ...
"Paper Bag plans for the new shop and its 320k/DRM-free files to complement and enhance the label’s conventional releases, offering fans a chance to buy exclusive content such as live sessions and additional recordings by Paper Bag artists. The shop will also simply give you an alternative place where you spend your green on some good tunes. After all, we can only let Steve Jobs get so rich."
I'd also point out that if you want less expensive, digital, DRM free music that Zunior is already serving it up (if you want to buy the full album).
For those of you who don't know, today is Record Store day. CBC Radio 3 did a whole contest to find the "Best Record Store In Canada". The award, surprisingly, went to Meow Records of Prince George, British Columbia.
Record Store Day was started to celebrate the Record Store as a musical community center, as well as bring people in to their local record store (where they may not have been in awhile.) Stores across the US, UK and Canada participated in the event with in store performances, special sales and other events.
Organizers hope to thwart the notion that the record store has gone or is going the way of the buffalo, as well as call attention to the nefarious ways of corporate big box stores like Wal-Mart, Target and Best Buy. "Independent anything gets my vote," says Eric Levin from Criminal Records in Atlanta. "As long as I'm kicking against the corporate pricks I'm deliriously happy. There's been a strange misconception that the record store was an endangered species, which is very far from the truth. It doesn't matter if the New York Times reports the end of music retail, if it isn't true. We just wanted to shine a light on that fact."
Sadly I fear that far more record stores will fall off the map before all is said and done. Although my personal favorite is Soundscapes I still recommend that people buy from Zunior.com as often as possible because, quite simply, it's the best way to get the most money to the artists themselves.
Today I went to Sunrise Records, on Yonge Street in Toronto for Laura Barret's instore performance. I didn't miss the irony of attending a "Record Store Day" event across the street from "Sam the Record Man" whose signs still dominate that part of Yonge Street.
Laura, as always, was brilliant - sadly it was not her crowd. Most of the crowd was made up of teenagers, of the particular variety that is already swallowed whole by the Matrix, who had come to see Ill Scarlet (peforming later in the evening). Still, I think Laura won a few new fans and it is important to rescue those who can still be rescued.
This just in...an update on Laura Barrett's soon to be released album, along with some upcoming shows (starting tonight) and other future plans - if you'd like to get this kind of stuff first hand you should join the Deception Island Optimists Club on Facebook.
"Hey all!
So Laura's pretty much, almost, super close to finishing her first full length album - recorded and mixed by the very talented Paul Aucoin! Soon Laura will be taking off to play a series of shows with the Hidden Cameras in Europe and will be returning in May to do do her own tour across Canada and the US (stay tuned for dates!)
So catch Laura before she takes off...
tonight - at the Entire Cities CD release party - at the Canadian Corps Hall at King and Niagra
Friday April 18th - at PepperJack's in Hamilton - Supporting the wonderful Junior Boys
Saturday April 19th - an in-store at Sunrise records - 336 Yonge St - 4:30pm Sharp!"
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