Enjoying a musical summer in Nova Scotia
Music down our way: Can it get any better?
LUNENBURG — Music down our way has been excellent this summer. It seems that there is a concert every second night. By ‘our way’ I mean Nova Scotia and in particular Mahone Bay, Lunenburg and points immediately south like Riverport and Kingsburg. I think it’s also true in many other places in the Maritimes and Ontario. This week we have been staying on the Atlantic shore of Prince Edward Island near Malpeque; hereabouts we find there is a Ceilidh or Kitchen party almost every night and all within a short drive. Surely we Canadians are in the midst of a golden age of musical performance, whether one is in Nova Scotia or Peterborough. How blessed we are.
Down our way there have been several classical concerts in Mahone Bay and Lunenburg under the aegis of Musique Royale, highlighting acclaimed performers like Susie LeBlanc. Cecilia’s Retreat near Mahone Bay offers house parties and dinner to accompany classical artists. Twice a month on Friday evenings there is a variety of music at Jim Lindner’s St. Marks Place (formerly a Lutheran Church--now masterfully redesigned for music and performance--on the majestic LeHave River). John Duckworth’s (realestate office) barn in Kingsburg has offered numerous concerts this summer including the splendid duo of Ariana Nasr and Curtis Thorpe. Ariana’s renditions of Edith Piaf are extraordinary and her linguistic range is stunning. As well, every evening (but Monday) Steve Chapin and friends entertain at The Ovens Natural Park (and camp ground) just down the road from us. Some performances require a small fee--$20 is the standard--but tickets are usually available at the door.
A word about Steve Chapin and the Chapin family. Steve bought the Ovens decades ago. It has been a summer home for the extended family ever since. In addition to the musical evenings at the Ovens, the Chapins of all ages gather in mid-August for the annual Chapin Family Concert. People come from around the continent to take in the event.
Celebrating the legacy of Harry Chapin, the evening provides a masterful mix of Harry’s well-known songs (Taxi, Cat’s in the Cradle, Mr. Tanner, and All My Life’s a Circle, to name a few) and other pieces by members of the family and Harry’s band — brothers Tom and Steve (who was Harry’s musical director), the gifted Chapin Sisters (Tom’s daughters), and Harry’s daughter Jen, who performs with her trio from New York City. Big John Wallace and Howard Fields from the original Harry Chapin band join in. For me nostalgia is always in the saddle at the Ovens and at the Family concert. Memories abound as Harry’s music is recast for old and new fans.
Finally, the annual Lunenburg Folk Harbour Festival took place from Aug. 8-11. It made a busy weekend of music if, like us, you had a pass for all the events. That means non-stop sessions from Thursday night to the final number (to the tune of Farewell to Nova Scotia) on Sunday night.
Frankly I was at first glance a little disappointed in the line-up. There was no David Myles, no Matt Anderson, no Rose Cousins, no Rick Fines. It took a closer look to realize that the organizing committee had chosen the acts well; after all, they receive hundreds of musical submissions annually.
Sadly, the headliners did not live up to their billing. Though a sassy Martha Wainright preformed to a sell-out crowd on the Thursday night, she seemed bent on a kind of moderated self-destruction. A few friends unkindly dismissed her performance as a train wreck, but I saw a somewhat deliberate attempt to be edgy and “with it.” However one described it, it didn’t work.
Sunday’s closing act was Fred Eaglesmith and again reviews were at best mixed. He is less the hard-driving rocker and more a talkative car-and-family guy, bent on attacking virtually all manifestations of the new. I liked some of his jokes and songs, but overall, with his accompanist wife Tiffany and his precocious son, there was less to enjoy. I remember seeing Fred in Peterborough when he included a young Serena Rider in his concert--I missed that rough but powerful edge he offered then.
A folk festival is usually rich in its relatively unheralded but upcoming groups. This year was no exception; they came from coast to coast and interestingly from American venues like Austin, Texas. There was Doris Mason, the extraordinary Ruthie Foster, blues masters Ced, Marty and Dave, the vigorous Les Chauffeurs a Pieds, Madison Violet, the Sweet Lowdown and The Ennis Sisters. I particularly enjoyed the not-so-Old Man Luedecke who charmed audience members with his pseudo-innocently funny and occasionally poignant songs.
Two others hit home with special power. First there were the two Newfoundland teenagers, Earle & Coffin, who rocked the big tent with their extraordinary guitar playing. Then there was Eliza Gilkyson from Austin who has had a long career as a song writer and performer. From a New Age phenomenon she has evolved into a wise and durable singer with a large following. She sang songs from her new album Secularia in which she explores the power of religion as a personal quest, remote from institutional religion and its many tyrannies and vices. It is her 20th album and among her best.
But as she performed both at the Festival’s big tent and down near the Bluenose Wharf, she took us back in time to the music of her father, Terry Gilkyson, who performed in coffee houses of the 1950s and ‘60s with a group called The Easy Riders. While guitar-strumming groups of young men were much in demand in those days, Terry also made a name for himself as a writer; his folk classics include Green Fields and Marianne. Perhaps you, like me, have warm memories of “Once there were green fields kissed by the sun” and “Marianne, oh, Marianne, oh, won’t you marry me?” as sung by Harry Belafonte. Terry Gilkyson also wrote more mainstream popular pieces for Dean Martin (Memories Are Made of This) and for Disney’s The Jungle Book (The Bare Necessities).
Moving from Terry Gilkyson’s songs to his daughter Eliza’s music offered a remarkable breadth of shared history! Such a family legacy! It drew me in, partly, I am sure, because Green Fields was one of my favorite songs as a teenager growing up in Toronto in the 50s. I had The Brothers
Four version of Green Fields on vinyl (I still have it) and on many evenings I sang that simple but sweet song to myself; it was almost like a private comforting lullaby. Teenagers sometimes relish the idea of loss even though they hardly know anything about it. Think of the climatic line “Where are the green fields that we used to roam?” That was certainly my case even in the west-end Toronto.
Music has the power to charms us in the moment, but it can also offer a pleasurable nostalgic punch that grabs us at a deep level. To have Green Fields and Harry Chapin’s Taxi freshly before me brought back my precious past as powerfully as a Proustian cookie or madeleine. Thank you Eliza and thank you Steve and Tom.