Dry River Caravan at Wakefield's river valley inn, The Black Sheep Tavern

If you've never had the opportunity to catch a show at the Black Sheep Inn, you should plan a trip to Wakefield, Quebec in the very near future. I know I've extolled its virtures before, but the small town surroundings, friendly people,  fantastic food, and local brews make the perfect backdrop for many a quietly rambunctious musical experience. The Black Sheep is known for hosting bands as varied in home towns as they are in musical styles, and they always knock it out of the park.

Last Friday the staged was graced by local Ottawa outfit Dry River Caravan supported by The Opposite of Everything out of Toronto. I should preface this review by saying that the last show I saw at The Black Sheep was an unqualified success with Montreal's Lake of Stew warming up the crowd for banjoman extraordinaire Old Man Luedecke, and reciving the only opening-band-encore I have ever experienced. Needless to say the bar was set rather high... Had I not had this in the back of my mind the Opposite of Everything may have impressed me more, but alas it was not the case.
All the pieces were certainly there- the eclectic mix of klesmer and bluegrass combined with Indian and African rhythms provided an interesting base, but the songs just didn't seem to come together.  The individual members of the band were fantastic musicians (Particularly John Williams on Clarinet and Harmonica)- and each looked as if they were having a great time up on stage- but again the pieces didn't really seem to come together.  Lead singer Jaron Freeman-Fox and accordion/keys player Johnny Spence even physically collided with each other on several occasions (and not in that we're-so-excited-we-bash-into-each-other-on-purpose kind of excellent way, more in a hey-I-didn't-see you-there-cuz-I'm-off-in-my-own-world kind of a way...).  The overall performance, while clearly showing immense amounts of promise, seemed in need of a healthy dose of practice and significantly more direction. From reading other reviews of their live show I am inclined to think they were just having a bit of an off night, so I would certainly give them another chance, but this was far from the best performance I've ever seen...

In striking contrast were headliners Dry River Caravan. I first came across this local group at one of Ottawa's gigantic neighborhood street sales and instantly fell in love with their music. An interesting mix of several folky-styles my enjoyment of the music was helped along by their engaging smiles and never ending enthusiasm- not many people can play an eight-hour garage sale and still be smiling by the end of it! This was my first opportunity to see them playing in a more traditional indoor-setting.

The very definition of a group, the members of Dry River Caravan fed off of each other in every aspect of their performance. Robin Meyer-MacLeod did not seem to be able to wipe the smile off of his face through singing, clarinet playing and happy-dancing, and bouzouki player Matt Smith is quite possibly one of the most entertainingly into-it performers I have ever seen, even looking like he was going to openly weep during several melodramatic moments. John Cockburn's beautifully charismatic voice and energetic acordioning provided the anchor lacking in the opener's performance, and Daniel Grewal on upright bass,  Liam Smith on drums , and the guest trumepteer beautifully rounded out the group.

After getting off to a slow start, they soon won the crowd over and had several members of the audience making up impromptu dance routines and cheers. Mixing klezmer, bluegrass, and folk with sweeping narratives and an energetic performance, there could not have been a more perfect compliment to the swirling snow outside, the cold beers, and the friendly crowd.

I will certainly be keeping an eye out for future shows by both bands- a sure-thing from Dry River Caravan, and a second look at The Opposite of Everything.

Top Five Performances of 2011 (#1)

Top five concerts of 2011- the wrap up!

Coming up with the top five concerts wasn't that difficult (though I could have very easily made a top eight...) but it was pretty difficult trying to rank them! there have been so many great shows this year, and I have only been to handful of those put on, and only ones in Ottawa, Guelph and Montreal! It makes me happy to think of all the other amazing shows other people got to go see (even the ones I missed out on because I found out about them too late- like Northcote and Library Voices back in April- man that concert would have been awesome!). If you didn't get out to many live shows, consider making it one of your resolutions for 2012, or even better, one of the resolutions you actually keep!

Twenty twelve is looking good so far as I've already got a good ten or eleven shows to look forward to in the next few months. I've also recently become a contributor to Canadian Indie Music website Grayowl Point so you can catch my Ottawa-Montreal area concert reviews there starting mid-January.

But for now...

1

Library Voices - Summer of Lust - Casa Del Popolo, Montreal, October 26, 2011

So my sister Krista will be absolutely thrilled to see these guys topping my list (her favourite band to the moon and back...) but beyond being introduced to them through her, their subsequent place in my heart was fully earned by their well-read lyrics, piano/drum led melodies and energetic live performance. Library Voices are one of those bands you see live and think to yourself "How are they not super famous!?!"

Hailing from Regina, Saskatchewan, this seven piece multi- keyboard, multi-guitar, multi-awesome outfit is virtually unstoppable on-stage. If you've ever heard the expression "they left it all out on the stage" this is who it was invented to describe. I have been to a lot of concerts in my time, but it only took me about ten seconds into my first Library Voices show to realise it would be one of my top five concerts of all time.

The venue (Casa Del Popolo) is a small bar tucked secretly behind a restaurant, and its difficult to not feel like you're involved in some kind of back-door dealings as you snake through the tables and through a back door. The cider was cheap and tasty and the crowd was enthusiastic, if somewhat small, but you never would have known it once LV took to the stage. The next night I would go to my first stadium concert in years and be impressed with how Mumford and Sons made a huge crowd seem like an intimate gathering- but Library Voices did the exact opposite, making the small crowd feel like a packed house. And an amazing one at that. The sweat was flying, the band members teetering on the edge of the stage and often venturing out into the crowd.  Seriously, but seriously, you could not have felt more a part of things if you were up on the stage.

Fantastic show. Really really. And not that it bears much weight on their music, but this band is also incapable of taking an un-awesome photograph. Whether its a picture of the band, or one taken by them, every image is beautifully framed, coloured, composed and anything else you can think of.

So check them out at libraryvoices.ca and tell all your friends. The best band you've never heard of. For Serious Yo.