Age brings wisdom, good music
SONIC ELDER: Play presents the hard lessons learned, along with rewards and pitfalls
Sure, it’s been said rock ’n’ roll goes on forever, but people who play rock ’n’ roll get older and. …
In the 1950s and 60s, when rock ’n’ roll was still regarded as a passing fad, this wasn’t supposed to happen. Rock musicians had a four-year career at best before getting married and getting a responsible, respectable job.
If you told Mick Jagger in 1965 that he’d be singing Satisfaction 50 years later, he would have laughed.
Experience, wisdom and a broader perspective are a natural part of a career that far outlasted four years.
That’s what Sonic Elder, a musical play that runs at the Penthouse from Sept. 27 to Oct. 2 is about — the hard lessons learned, the reward of playing music and the pitfalls. Presented by Chop Theatre, Sonic Elder is the reflections of a band leader and his older cohorts. The band was put together by Bill Sample, himself a sonic elder who probably remembers when Vancouver had thriving venues, musicians were paid, DJs had influence and power and the world was opening up.
Bluebird North has made it to its 100th show. A cycle of songwriters, it was fashioned after Nashville’s Bluebird Cafe songwriter’s circle but, under Shari Ulrich, has assumed its own identity. Appearing at the Roundhouse next month are Helen Austin, Stephen Fearing, Shawn Verreault and Ulrich.
Self-described punk/pop group The Shit Talkers are getting good gigs. Last week, the all-woman group opened for SNFU. They open for C.J. Ramone at the Rickshaw Oct. 15.
Another punk/pop band, The Vidos, albeit male, opened for Aussie band, The Lazys, at the Roxy. The song, Car Trouble, is a short but crunchy hard rock that indicates potential.
Bear Mountain continue to show soul/urban roots on new song On My Own, which prominently features a collaboration with Nelly Furtado.
The Tourist Company shows off its Apollo Tuesday. The Apollo album is due later in the week. Duo Mu is at the Rickshaw Sept. 6, then heads off for a West Coast tour. Dave Baker says his song, Royal Hudson, will be performed by Phoenix’s choir Sonoran Desert Chorale, making it an acknowledged internationally renowned B.C. folksong.
At home, the Lion’s Gate Chorus, an 80 strong choir of women under the direction of Sandy Robinson Marron, holds an open house Sept. 13 at the Salvation Army Building, 3403 E49, from 6:30 p.m.
Servo is at the Media Club Sept. 3, where it will première songs from the CD Mixed Messages.
Country singer Lisa Nicole exudes a bright, fizzy personality on her forthcoming EP, Come Find Me, out Sept. 6. Generally upbeat, it has an element of rock at the foundation, but is country in her delivery.
Burmis Tree has released its Nick Cave-influenced Blood Of The Land. The title even sounds Cavelike.
Plastic Acid Orchestra is in concert Sept. 10 with Vedda Hille. The 46-piece orchestra pays tribute to Buffy Sainte-Marie, Emily Carr and Hille. Hille has composed an album of songs inspired by Carr’s diary, so it’s no stretch to figure out where the painter fits into the concept.
Sonreal’s Can I Get A Witness? from his The Name EP has gone gold.
Carly Rae Jepsen has been acclaimed for her E-Mo-Tion LP and has followed that with the eighttrack EP, Emotion Side B.
CD of the week
There is no avoiding the influence of Jimmy Rogers or The Carter Family on Petunia And The Vipers’ Dead Bird On The Highway.
Both are at the root of his old-time music, but there is so much more.
Calling it ‘old-time’ is a starting place. It blossoms into country, blues, swing and rockabilly with a rumba and another song sung in Swahili. Petunia sings like an old soul and his Vipers not only are versatile, as the album goes through its many feels, but play with sympathy and understanding from the first shuffling rhythm — Jimmy Roy’s lap steel fills ringing out the country in all its incarnations and Steve Nikleva’s guitar solos capturing the mood yet are restrained. Petunia And The Vipers play at the Rickshaw Theatre Sept 24.
Gigs
Linda McRae (Saturday, Bozzini’s). Barry Greenfield (Friday, Frankie’s Jazz Club). Crosstown Bus (rejuvenated ’60s band, Sept. 24, Columbia Theatre). Petunia And The Vipers (Sept. 24, Rickshaw Theatre). Caroline Mark Trio (Sept. 30, Bozzini’s). Prism (Oct. 20, Cascades Casino) Barry Greenfield (Nov. 18, Roundhouse).