From: owner-navy-soup-digest@smoe.org (navy-soup-digest) To: navy-soup-digest@smoe.org Subject: navy-soup-digest V2 #36 Reply-To: navy-soup@smoe.org Sender: owner-navy-soup-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-navy-soup-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk navy-soup-digest Monday, March 29 1999 Volume 02 : Number 036 In This Digest: ----------------- Northern Sounds Show Review ["Gian.C." ] OAC: Northern Sounds Showcase: A review ["Julian C. Dunn" Subject: Northern Sounds Show Review (Sorry to all for this massive cross post) Well, it seems that the second installment of the Northern Sounds Songwriters Showcase was a big success. I'd like to congratulate Steve and James for the great show, you guys rock. I got there about 15 minutes early and expected the place to be empty, or at least i'd have a place to sit, but to my surprise, the place was packed already. It's great to see all the support for these young artists. Unfortunately i had to sit near the 'musicians table' ;) where i had the opportunity to talk with Jessica and Rayanne :) Onto the review, in total there were four performers, the first set had Jessica, Rayanne and Rebecca Timmons. The second set had a surprise performer in Trish, from Detroit (well, 20 minutes outside of Detroit :P) who played three songs, then Jessica, Rayanne and Rebecca Timmons. Ok, first up was Jessica. Like everyone else who's heard her play or has her CD, I think she's awesome. Great songs, great voice, great person, good things come in threes i guess :) I wish i had a set list to share, but i'm sure someone will. Although i especially loved the last song she played, which happened to be written on the plane to Toronto. A flight from New York City to Toronto is only about an hour, the girl can write :) Rayanne as always was amazing, although she's gotta get a better grip on her guitar cuz she keeps dropping it (had to be said :P). She has a way with mesmerizing the crowd into listening, maybe its because she has such great songs and voice. I believe she played around 11 songs, ranging from month old songs to 2-3 year old songs which were written when she used to live in Winnipeg, Manitoba. I've been a big supporter of Rayanne ever since i heard her play one song during one of Emm Gryner's shows in Hamilton, Ontario. She's a great friend and great person to know, i'm sure most of you will hear of her in the future :) The surprise guest from Detroit, Trish, was a delight to see. Some of her first words were "In Detroit we have a saying, Yup, that sound you heard were gun shots" or something to that effect :) She played a total of three songs and all were awesome. From what i hear, she plays many instruments, and is multi-talented, and that shined through in her songs. Finally, Rebecca Timmons performed two sets (as did Jessica, and Rayanne). I've been a fan of Rebecca's for some time now but she had some problems with her label which caused her to not perform for some time. She has an energy about her that is contagious, i was into every one of her songs. She played two songs off of her first cd and the rest were brand new, which was a treat. Her new cd is going to be awesome. There's not enough i can say about her. In total the show was a huge success, the crowd was exceptional and the performers were incredible. Be sure to keep an eye out for all of these musicians in the future. Steve and James should be given medals for putting on such great shows. Oh and a big thanks to James as well for being the 'Sound Guy' great job :) Ok, i think i've rambled on enough, back to sleep for the next few months :) till next show, - -Gian ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Check out http://webhome.idirect.com/~nsounds for Tour and Artist info, sound clips, reviews, and articles on new up and coming artists out of Toronto, such as Emm Gryner and Sarah Slean. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 28 Mar 1999 23:52:07 -0500 (EST) From: "Julian C. Dunn" Subject: OAC: Northern Sounds Showcase: A review 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 ------------------------------ End of navy-soup-digest V2 #36 ******************************