From: owner-trajectory-digest@smoe.org (trajectory-digest) To: trajectory-digest@smoe.org Subject: trajectory-digest V1 #18 Reply-To: trajectory@smoe.org Sender: owner-trajectory-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-trajectory-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk trajectory-digest Thursday, September 25 1997 Volume 01 : Number 018 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Scrappy Bitch [kat ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 24 Sep 1997 18:58:28 -0700 (PDT) From: kat Subject: Scrappy Bitch Hi y'all, folks who know me from the Ani list may be familiar with my friend Gumby. He has the world's best search engine and found this and mailed it to me.. i hope you all enjoy! kat >From: RHillard@atinc.com >Date: Wed, 24 Sep 1997 17:25:20 -0400 >Subject: Scrappy Bitch >To: kgullo@earthlink.net >Content-Description: cc:Mail note part > >>From the Jam Music page... > >Monday, September 22, 1997 >An emotional ride > >By TRALEE PEARCE -- Ottawa Sun > >The Scrappy Bitch Tour rolled into Ottawa last night and stole a few hearts >while it was here. > >The three female solo acts on the tour -- the energetic poet-folkie-rapper >Kinnie Starr, the folk-country twanger Oh Susanna and the keyboard queen >Veda Hille -- were far from scrappy and hardly bitchy. > >After each solo performance, the two offstage "bitches" would join in and >embellish each others' songs -- obviously marvelling at each other's >talent. It was a treat. > >Oh Susanna's piercing, twangy tunes started off the evening -- but not >before a bout of technical difficulty she handled with humor. > >As she fiddled with her barely-tuned acoustic guitar, complaining that she >couldn't hear it, one fellow in the crowd gently, but loudly, suggested >"Shouldn't it be plugged in?" > >"Oh yeah ..." she said, self-mockingly. Then, after her first song, as she >tuned some more, she joked, "This is all I do, actually, just tune." > >Ready to go, she belted through a set full of new songs and a few of her >gems, including one about a Pueblo Indian uprising in the 1680s called >Missoula. > >Stagemate Kinnie Starr best described the country-folkie style of Oh >Susanna (aka Suzie Ungerleider): "It's like yellow silk with a rusty >pitchfork through it." > >Packed with shotgun, front porches and Cherry Coke references, these are >songs that appeal to the country gal in all of us. > >Some of the credit has to go to the choice of venue for the Scrappy Bitches >-- the GCTC's intimate sit-down theatre meant that instead of the din of >chatter you might hear at a regular club, last night's audience was a >hushed, respectful bunch. > >All the better for hearing all three crisp, relatively unaccompanied >voices. > >Even better, the GCTC left the set from the currently running play Les >Belles Soeurs ('60s-era kitchen, with the only adjustment being a >superhero-themed SBT poster slapped on the fridge door) up. > >Kinnie Starr was on second, and took the audience on an at-times emotional, >at times goofy, magical music ride. > >Stepping out in her bare feet, up the aisles of the theatre, Starr >delivered three phenomenal poetry/spoken-word pieces, one about the effects >a rainstorm in Northern Ontario had on her, one about a friend's heroin >addiction and another, lighter, piece inspired by a pal who inherited a >freezer full of moose meat. Dropping their themes here doesn't do them >justice -- Starr's sometimes earthy and spiritual, sometimes comic lyrics >aren't pretentious, just compelling. > >And catchy, especially when she switches gears and bashes out a tune, P.J. >Harvey-style, on her green electric guitar (to match her head-to-toe >camouflage gear, it seemed) or lets loose her "porta-studio" rapster beats, >as she did last night. Infectious highlights were groovy, jazzy tunes like >Grandma's Bicycle and Praise. > >Veda Hille's set alternated between crazed keyboard tunes, soft, delicate >love songs and bittersweet guitar musings. > >For the most part, think of Tori Amos -- only punkish and more scholarly. > >Take two of the songs she performed last night -- they're part of an >upcoming concept album about painter Emily Carr. Suffice it to say all of >the Group of Seven made it into a chorus. > >The Slumber Queen, Instructions and 26 Years were contemplative, intense >bursts of emotional fervor that would have been exhausting if not for >Hille's lighthearted approach. > >But, like her co-stars, Hille was having too much fun to be a downer -- or >much of a real bitch. > >SUN RATING: 4 OUT OF 5 > > > ------------------------------ End of trajectory-digest V1 #18 *******************************