vintage

On January 19, 1971, Canada’s legendary singer-songwriter Neil Young gave a solo concert at Toronto’s Massey Hall. Audiences there heard for the first time several of the iconic songs that would later appear on his albums, including his best-selling LP Harvest - yet the live concert recording itself wasn’t released until 2007.

Now, as part of the Festival-wide Guitar Festival, a new generation of musicians, led by Juno Award winning music director Kevin Breit, will recreate that landmark concert, performing their own distinctive arrangements of the album’s eighteen classic songs.

That’s the description from the website for Luminato, the “festival of arts and creativity” that’s currently taking over Toronto. It sure sounds like a good idea in theory: paying tribute to one of the greatest musicians Canada has ever produced, and one of the greatest live albums ever, at the place that the album was recorded. And Kevin Breit would know a thing or two about the subject at hand, having won a Juno Award for Run Neil Run, an instrumental album of Young covers. Things are starting off promisingly.

Many of the performances were amazing: Jason Collett’s version of “See The Sky About To Rain” was a major highlight, including the audience participation moment (rubbing palms, snapping fingers, stomping feet, etc) where it truly sounded like it had begun to rain inside Massey Hall, and the trio of Emilie-Claire Barlow, Melanie Doane and Kathryn Rose did an absolutely shimmering rendition of “Cowgirl in the Sand” to close the first half.

Equally noteworthy were the Cowboy Junkies, who did both “Love in Mind” and “Don’t Let it Bring You Down”, both of them ethereal and haunting — it felt like we were in a church at three in the morning, a few half-broken floodlights on the stage carpets, dust in the rafters, making music because we wanted to. I’m sure Neil Young would have been all right with their treatment of his work.

However.

Holly Cole, Steven Page, and Issa should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves. Cole’s butchery of “Old Man” was painful (I was wincing): her heavy-handed inflections were misplaced and distracting, and she sang it about as delicately as a construction worker tiptoeing in steel-toed boots. Page, for his part, turned “Journey Through The Past” into some kind of pseudo-Latin-flavoured hunk of junk, completely bypassing the entire emotional content of the song. Someone should have reminded them that it was a tribute to Neil Young, not a “look at me” contest; it’s not about you, it’s about the guy whose song you’re singing. Pay him a little respect!

Issa. Oh, boy. Most of you will remember her under her former moniker, Jane Siberry; she changed her name sometime in 2006, I think. Her version of “There’s a World” was unremarkable, but the problem lay in the post-performance conversation with MC Matt Wells (of MuchMoreMusic). Wells basically paid her a great compliment: he commented that Neil Young had stayed relevant throughout forty years of music history because he had stayed true to himself and had done what he wanted to do, and asked if Issa related to him because he thought she had done the same.

There was a long pause, and Issa shot back “Oh, is that how you stay relevant?”

It didn’t get much better after that. Wells stumbled in surprise and tried to explain that Neil hadn’t just followed every trend, but had created his own; Issa continued to be completely impossible and stonewalled everything Wells tried to say. It was a relief when that part was over. I’m not sure what she felt she needed to accomplish with that outburst, but it was unpleasant.

Roxanne Potvin, who followed that wreck of an interlude, picked the night back up magnificently with “Bad Fog of Loneliness” — she even borrowed Young’s bit of banter from the album, reminding us that they’d treat it like the Tennessee Three, which they promptly did.

Full list of performers and songs (from what I remember; I’ll pick up the program tonight and correct them if necessary) after the jump. The Luminato festival will continue through June 14. The Canadian Songbook Tribute to Neil Young was recorded for CBC Radio; more info to come about the air or post date when I find it.

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Tags: bill frisell, bill frisell trio, carole pope, chocolate genius inc, colin james, colin linden, cowboy junkies, danny michel, emilie-claire barlow, harry manx, holly cole, issa, jane siberry, jason collett, kathryn rose, kevin breit, luminato, massey hall, matt wells, melanie doane, neil young, roxanne potvin, sarah slean, sisters euclid, steven page, stevie jackson

Toronto favourite Dave Bidini just doesn’t quit. Best known as a Rheostatic for 27 years (their final show was in March 2007 at Massey Hall, and it still tops the list of shows I regret missing — I was at a rehearsal literally around the corner), Bidini has also written a handful of books and adapted one into a play, and now he’s just released his first solo album with his co-conspirators under the name Bidiniband. It’s called The Land Is Wild, and also features Paul Linklater, Doug Friesen and Don Kerr, as well as a healthy list of guests.

To celebrate the album’s release, Bidini not only put on a show at the Legendary Horseshoe Tavern last weekend, but also organized a “Hoser March”, beginning at Soundscapes with a Bidiniband in-store performance and working its way through Kensington Market to end at the Shoe. Stops on the way included She Said Boom!, with a fabulous reading by Claudia Dey; This Ain’t the Rosedale Library, including performances by Justin Rutledge and Gregory Samsung; Graffiti’s, with more Bidiniband (and a hilarious version of Joan Osbourne’s “If God Was One Of Us”!); and The Cameron House, with the Billie Hollies and Aurora Brown.

I must say that the march itself was a little anticlimactic — I was expecting to hoot and holler and stomp our way through the streets of Toronto, but it was more like a scraggly walk between venues. Some of the performances more than made up for that, though, including Gregory Samsung’s hilarious “The Book of Hosers”: reworked lyrics to “The Book of Love,” which we all sang on the street in front of This Ain’t the Rosedale Library, much to the amusement of the surrounding bars. Here’s a selection:

The book of Hosers is long and interesting
But everyone’s too drunk to lift the damn thing
It’s full of toques and literature and hockey
And instructions for rolling joints

But I love it when you give me things
You ought to give me wedding rings
I want to be like Geddy Lee
You have a dog with lotsa fleas
I dream of drinking from the Cup
You can you lend me 20 bucks

Blatant copyright infringement notwithstanding, it was an excellent singalong.

The Bidiniband release party at the ‘Shoe was kick-started by a performance from the excellently-named Tres Bien Ensemble, followed by Laura Barrett (avec magnificent band). I missed most of the former, but Laura’s set sounded terrific, and Randy Lee’s strings sounded better than most things I’ve heard at the Horseshoe. By the time Bidini and friends hit the stage, the place was still deplorably empty, considering the Rheos are mainstays there. Too bad. They sure didn’t let us down, though, playing most of the tracks from the new record and a large handful of other things besides (including a triumphant ending at 2:00 in the morning with “Horses” from the legendary Melville).

I’m unable to upload tracks since I still don’t have a stable internet connection — Tunesday is still on hold — but you can check out Dave’s official website … or watch the video of “The Land Is Wild” as Hockey Night in Canada theme song for Game 4 of Pittsburgh/Carolina here (!). There are few people more Canadian than Bidini.

Also happening in Toronto is the giant Luminato festival, co-presented by L’Oréal and billed as a celebration of arts and creativity. The ten-day culture explosion includes everything: music, dance, opera, theatre, film, photography, painting, etc. Part of their musical component is a bunch of programming centred around the guitar, and on Sunday, Yonge/Dundas Square hosted an all-day free music series with some pretty remarkable artists: I managed to make it there in time to see Jerry Douglas, bluegrass dobro player extraordinaire; Sonny Landreth, ridiculously soulful Louisiana guitarist (you might remember hearing about him before); The Campbell Brothers, who probably groove more than any other human beings on this Earth, maybe even Stevie Wonder; and Canadian producer and guitarist Daniel Lanois (solo). All for free! You don’t get much better than that, and it was pretty amazing. I think I’d like to hug the person responsible for programming that day. Do yourself a favour and see the Campbell Brothers and Jerry Douglas when you get the chance — I was blown away.

Kicking off the Luminato guitar festival was a show at Massey Hall on June 5 called “Three Girls and Their Buddy”: Emmylou Harris, Shawn Colvin, Patty Griffin and Buddy Miller. I probably don’t even need to talk about the show at all, since that lineup absolutely speaks for itself — it was, of course, terrific. Exceptional highlights included Miller’s solo cover of The Left Banke’s “Walk Away, Renée” and the three women singing “Didn’t Leave Nobody But The Baby” a cappella for the encore (if you’ve seen O Brother, Where Art Thou?, you’ll remember it sung by Emmylou, Alison Krauss and Gillian Welch). Whew.

Summer in Toronto! It’s a good one. Stay tuned for more Luminato and other stuff.

Tags: bidiniband, buddy miller, campbell brothers, daniel lanois, dave bidini, dundas square, emmylou harris, horseshoe tavern, jerry douglas, luminato, massey hall, patty griffin, rheostatics, shawn colvin, sonny landreth