|
Sign up now for a FREE Citygigs listing. No strings, no bull, just
free unlimited self serve access to your info on the site.
New User? Click here!
|
|
Riding a railroad of songs
Toronto
March 10, 2003
Since the days of Sir John A. MacDonald, the train has been a metaphor for many things: progress and power, escape and adventure; it's also been a muse that's inspired many a folk song. Gordon Lightfoot captured these emotions best in "Canadian Railroad Trilogy," and on March 10 at Toronto's Horseshoe Tavern, train travel was the unofficial theme for a night of roots music by Fred Eaglesmith and friends.
The show kicked off Roots on the Rails, a three-day train tour of Canada organized around a pair of Eaglesmith concerts in Toronto and Vancouver.
Ian Bell opened by playing a couple of songs to a half full room on his battered acoustic guitar and paid tribute to trains with his first song. The casual, family atmosphere was evident from the opening chords as people sat on the dance floor in front of the stage. Later in the evening, this laid back atmosphere caused Eaglesmith to comment "you are the quietest Toronto crowd I have ever seen."
American singer/songwriter David Olney, wearing a felt hat and belting forth tunes in a country drawl, followed Bell with a few selections to warm the crowd. One Fredhead in attendance didn't need any warming up as evidenced by his winter wardrobe of shorts and sandals. He probably ingested a few substances before the show, and was already mentally riding the rails that many of those in attendance would board the next morning.
Then came a twist as weird as the aforementioned sandal-clad fan. One part sideshow, one part musician, and one part comedian, the Horseshoe was treated to a light-hearted interlude with Washboard Hank. The goofy-eyed entertainer arrived on stage with what he called the "Fallopian Tuba" - a homemade instrument made of 1 ½ inch PVC pipe and a stainless steel sink played like an tuba. Following a song about Polyester Polly that echoed the style of Stompin' Tom Connors, Hank turned his guitar to face the audience and written in bold colors it said, "LAUGH."
As Hank collected his beer, Peterborough songsmith Serena Ryder took the stage. Dressed all in black, Ryder belted out an a cappella song that quickly reduced the 'Shoe from laughter to a hush of wide-eyed awe watching this soulful woman sing of melancholic musings. Ryder snapped her fingers and as she repeated the chorus the audience was put under her spell. At 20, her voice sounds likes she's lived at least 61 years with that raspy maturity and vocal range, romantically achieved from years of smoking and struggle. After a few more songs played on electric guitar, Ryder finished her too short set. The evening's highlight to that point.
At 10:30 p.m., the room was full as alt-country troubadour Fred Eaglesmith stepped to the stage sporting a wife beater shirt accompanied by his band, The Flying Squirrels. They opened with a track from his just released record, and then played one of his classic railroad songs, "Freight Train". The crowd bopped along and one really drunken fan sat at the foot of the stage singing along and tipping his ball cap in a sign of salute while his girlfriend provided encouragement. Eaglesmith's band features some tightly crafted instrumentation: dobro, pedal steel, slap bass, and mandolin mesh in perfect harmony showing what years of rolling along white line after white line on the highway does.
For the next hour-and-a-half, the Juno-award winner told stories, cracked jokes, waxed political, and sang songs about tractors, farms, roosters, and, of course, trains. A highlight was "Alcohol and Pills" - a honky-tonk homage to musicians whose time on earth was cut short by the excesses of the rock and roll lifestyle. Washboard Hank, wearing a pair of oven mitts, joined Eaglesmith's band near the end of its set, and led the crowd to clap along. Eaglesmith joked that, "Washboard Hank just pops in and out of your life like a virus…"
The band's set concluded with each member offering a sizzling solo, climaxed by some possessed mandolin playing by Bennett, who Eaglesmith said, "is still kicking ass after all these years!"
As the "Fredfest," ended with an encore near midnight, even those who weren't going to join the Fredheads the next day on the train had made a musical journey they wouldn't soon forget. For a few hours at least, the Horseshoe Tavern travelled along the railways of the mind guided by the country roots rock of Eaglesmith and the rest of the night's performers.
|
|
article search
|
