I started Saturday at East Coast Music Weekend back in the Harbourview Room for the last instalment of the Export Buyers “Roots” Showcase. The day kicked off with the smooth vocal stylings of Newfoundland’s Matthew Byrne. He began his set with a traditional Newfoundland folk song called “Jessie Monroe,” that he first heard via Tobias Pearson. It starts out as a typical kind of declaration of love to the blacksmith’s daughter, but there’s a twist ending. Byrne then told us a beautiful story about an open letter that once appeared in The Telegram in St. John’s. A man named Duncan Black was looking for any information about a woman named Adelaide Byrne who he had met there when his ship was in port in 1947. The ensuing saga inspired Matthew Byrne to write his song “Adelaide,” which is on his 2017 album Horizon Lines. It is written in the old style of folk song, with no chorus, like a epic poem set to music. The story is so poignant and the song does it beautiful justice. I found my eyes were welling up with tears at the ending. I love when people are able to take their families’ stories and turn them into art, and this is lovely example of Byrne doing just that.
Up next was Dartmouth, Nova Scotia’s Mo Kenney, who began her set with “I Faked It” from 2014’s In My Dreams. Kenney’s music is a captivating bridge between folk and pop and her lyrics in this song are raw, honest, and capture the strong emotions hidden beneath the surface when the wounds of the end of a relationship are still painful and fresh. “Sucker” from her self-titled debut album (2012), gives us the brilliant line, “I’m a sucker for your face,” and astutely sums up the internal conflict between knowing someone isn’t good for you, but still having an attraction to them regardless. This record also gave us Kenney’s “The Happy Song,” which she jokes is her only one, and “Déjà Vu”, a more uptempo vow to turn the end of the line with someone into something positive. She also treated us to her newest single “Ahead of Myself,” a catchy song about staying out all night and getting into trouble, but wanting to find a way to break the cycle. I recommend checking it out!
Switching gears again, the next set was by Prince Edward Island’s Vishtèn (Pastelle and Emmanuelle Leblanc, and Pascal Miousse), a band who style is rooted in the Island’s Acadian and Celtic roots music. With fiddle, guitar, accordion, mandolin, piano, flute, jaw harp, and bodhrán, along with foot percussion, this trio brings traditional Acadian texts and tunes to vivid life, with a contemporary spin and a style that beautifully reflects the fusion of cultures that exists on Prince Edward Island and across the country. I think it’s impossible to listen to this band’s set without starting to tap your toes and bounce along with them, even if you don’t understand the French lyrics, you still get a very rich feel for the essence of the tune, and you feel the music deep down in your bones.
Chris Buck Band from Vancouver, British Columbia played a set next. They have harnessed that brawny Nashville sound well, really capturing the essence of country music. My favourite song of their set was “That’s When You Know” (which features Kira Isabella on the album), and I am not alone. The song has had an impressive 3.6 million streams and over 100 playlist adds on Spotify since it was released in 2017.
The afternoon ended with a toe-tapping Cape Breton style ceilidh as the Barra MacNeils (Kyle, Lucy, Stewart, Sheumas, and Boyd MacNeil and Jamie Gatti) took the stage. They treated us to some songs from their newest record On the Bright Side (2018), including the extremely jaunty “Living the Dream,” which will have you dancing and singing along to the chorus for sure, but stop and listen to the lyrics, they’re quite the timely anthem to our current reality here in Late-Stage Capitalism. There was also soul-stirring fiddles, captivating step dancing, and the absolutely gorgeous “The Way Old Friends Do” (also from On the Bright Side), which showcases the band’s savoury harmonies and Lucy’s soaring leading vocals so perfectly. The Barras have been singing and playing together since they were children (Lucy was only nine when she joined the band), and time has been kind; they keep getting better and better.
In all it was a great afternoon in the “Roots” showcase. Stay tuned for more ECMA coverage coming later from the Saturday Night Pop Stage!
