From: owner-headline-girl-digest@smoe.org (headline-girl-digest) To: headline-girl-digest@smoe.org Subject: headline-girl-digest V2 #69 Reply-To: headline-girl@smoe.org Sender: owner-headline-girl-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-headline-girl-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk headline-girl-digest Tuesday, March 30 1999 Volume 02 : Number 069 Today's Subjects: ----------------- (fwd) from julian: another northern sounds review!! [Songbird22@aol.com] Re: (fwd) from julian: another northern sounds review!! [Songbird22@aol.c] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 29 Mar 1999 10:04:50 EST From: Songbird22@aol.com Subject: (fwd) from julian: another northern sounds review!! hey all, this review is from julian. enjoy: Hello folks, I had the pleasure of attending the Northern Sounds Productions showcase last night at the Free Times Cafe in Toronto, featuring Rayanne, Jessica Weiser and Rebecca Timmons, and a special guest, Trish from Detroit (TrishTLC@aol.com to those of you on headline-girl :) ) It was a great evening of wonderful music for free, courtesy of Steve and James at Northern Sounds. Jessica opened up the show with "Left", the second track from her EP "What Has Happened". Because it's on the album, and because she played at the Free Times last November, I can definitely say this -- her voice has become much stronger and she's more confident in her singing. My friend Mari remarked that even after the whole show was over, the one song that stuck in her head was Jess's opening number. Jess left me a set list so I wouldn't screw up the songs like I did last time in my review :) No actually, she didn't put it like that - I just felt really bad about mangling it last time so I asked her for the setlist. :) After "Left", she played "What Can I Say", also off the EP, and then followed with two new songs, "Speechless" and "Survivor", both of which were excellent. Jess's songwriting is also getting stronger; I imagine that with the right producer, her next album (hopefully a full-length one!) will be as strong as, say, Emm Gryner's "Public" (hmm, is it a coincidence that I picked this one while listening to 'Original Leap Year'? :) ) Next up was Rayanne, and it was nice to hear her for a longer period of time this time around. She was able to cull her set from a larger repertoire, as Gian mentioned; she played both recent material and songs that go back two or three years. She made some jokes about moving from Winnipeg (bad) to Brampton (worse!) :) to which Mari and I had a good laugh (Mari used to live in Brampton - it's one of those cookie-cutter suburbs of Toronto) Before intermission, Rebecca Timmons came on - wow. What a contrast. While I was listening to her, I was trying to come up with adequate adjectives to describe her, and I can think of only one - "stormy". As hilarious as it was, this observation was made: think Tori Amos plus Gowan. :-) (and I mean that in the BEST possible way) I think the perfect venue for her would be the courtyard of a large English castle, lit only by hundreds of candles. She's definitely an artist who needs space. I'm looking forward to seeing her again on a larger stage. After the break, the evening's special guest, Trish, made her way to the stage. Hailing from Detroit ('yes, that's a gunshot you heard' :) ), Trish is an extremely talented singer/songwriter. Although her material resembles Emm's in only the most passing way, I can see why Emm likes Trish's stuff - the pleasant layered melodies, contrasted by the sadness of the subject matter, are precisely the reason why I find Emm's music fascinating. I'm looking forward to Trish's upcoming record (at least I think she said she's coming out with a record soon... please correct me if I'm wrong) Jess followed Trish with three more songs: "Scarred", "If Only" (a Tara MacLean cover) and a really really new song, "The Drive", which I believe she said she wrote on the plane. I really liked it. Okay, this review is really getting long, so let me just make one last comment on Rayanne's second set - the a capella cover of "Winter" kicked ass! I'm usually dubious of people that try and pull off covers of Tori Amos, even with instrumentation, so I was skeptical at first, but it's clear that Rayanne has worked on it for a long time, and it sounds great. Altogether it was a very fun evening, with the exception of the waiter that was serving us at the Free Times. What was up with that? During Rayanne's set, he literally TOOK her chair to seat other customers even after being told that the chair belonged to the young lady on stage! I think our overly capitalist friend needs to be rebuked; never mind his announcing to me, after having ordered a coffee, that there was "a minimum back here of three dollars". Sheesh! Anyway, that was the only unpleasantness of the evening; otherwise it was a great show. My hats off to Steve and James for organizing the whole thing, and I look forward to seeing more of the same. Hey Steve, think you could get Lenni Jabour for the next show? :) - - Julian - -- Julian C. Dunn IEEE Student Branch, Systems Administrator ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 29 Mar 1999 10:21:45 EST From: Songbird22@aol.com Subject: Re: (fwd) from julian: another northern sounds review!! Julian writes: > Jessica opened up the show with "Left", the second track from her EP "What > Has Happened". Because it's on the album, and because she played at the > Free Times last November, I can definitely say this -- her voice has > become much stronger and she's more confident in her singing. My friend > Mari remarked that even after the whole show was over, the one song that > stuck in her head was Jess's opening number. Actually, I didn't do "left" in Nov--I did "what can I say?" I usually don't play "Left" live, especially the stripped down way I did it, but I felt like it. :) And thank you for your comments. :) By the way--did ANYONE tape this show?!?! >As hilarious as >it was, this observation was made: think Tori Amos plus Gowan. :-) (and I >mean that in the BEST possible way) I think the perfect venue for her Not sure who Gowan is, but I heard another comparison in the evening, which I won't repeat here... >I'm looking forward to Trish's upcoming record (at least I >think she said she's coming out with a record soon... please correct me if >I'm wrong) Yes, she does, and it's very very good. :) >Jess followed Trish with three more songs: "Scarred", "If Only" (a Tara >MacLean cover) and a really really new song, "The Drive", which I believe >she said she wrote on the plane. I really liked it. Thanks! :) That song is kind of a pleasant departure from what I'm used to writing. It's so much fun to play it. Just gotta work on it a bit more.:) >Rayanne's second set - the a capella cover of "Winter" kicked >ass! I'm usually dubious of people that try and pull off covers of Tori >Amos, even with instrumentation, so I was skeptical at first, but it's Rayanne is incredible--I really hope she can get a CD out sometime soon (hint, hint). :) She looks so comfortable up on stage too. :) And that waiter was sort of a strange guy... He didn't believe me that I was a performer and looked at me sort of oddly when I asked for water, then the guys behind the counter kept hitting on me... anyway, I like the venue a lot, it's so intimate... I hope everyone that came out enjoyed it! :) - -jessica "i've had x number of endings; when do i begin" -e.g. (soo my theme song right now :( ) http://adam.nettfriends.com/Jess ------------------------------ End of headline-girl-digest V2 #69 **********************************