Awna Teixeira

Allison Russell

JT Nero

I see a lot of live music performed by talented, hardworking musicians.  A lot.  I enjoy it all very much.  But every once in a while there’s a performance that stands out as a rare gem and I know I’ll remember it for a long while.  I’m just back from catching a show by Allison Russell and Awna Teixeira, who are Po’ Girl, joined by JT Nero, at a private house concert venue called Gilmour St. Music Hall in Peterborough, ON.  A generous crowd, great stories, infectious, joyful music, and lyrics full of true things conspired to engage and move me in a way that musical performances rarely do anymore.  Much gratitude for this gift today.

I’ll be saying some of some of my poems tomorrow evening,

at a cafe in Port Hope, Ontario.

I promise graveyards, child stealing, tears, and at least one dance.

There will also be some readings by recognized poets.

For the first time I’ll be offering some poems that draw on my

community outreach work at the fringes of the little town

on Lake Ontario.

I’ve invited some of the people that I work with,

people who share important parts of their lives with me.

I’ve invited them because they will keep me honest.

Monday, January 30, 7:30 PM

Dreamers Cafe

Corner of Queen St. and Walton St., Port Hope

i’ve never been a part of something so magical as filming our first video with the other girls of belle starr.
first of all, the song “summerlea” by fred eaglesmith is haunting, moody and suggests a sweet sadness. all our locations heightened this. we had the incredible opportunity of shooting at the legendary chelsea hotel in new york city (!) as well as on top of a giant skyscraper overlooking the empire state building and under a train bridge in brooklyn.

we had many lovely moments – and a couple of transcendental ones. -

we were shooting with the playback and all of a sudden, the heavens opened and we were drenched by a heavy downpour. instead of dashing out of the wet, our director, the inimitable jeth weinrich, grabbed the camera himself and with the D.P. and focus puller covering the camera with a tarp, he kept shooting!
the sudden rain was incredible. what luck! all the footage looked amazing – we all sort of knew something out of the ordinary had happened with kenny singing honestly and movingly getting slowly soaked with people rushing with umbrellas behind her to get out of the rain and jeth capturing it all.

another astounding moment was when all three of us shot close together with the play back. we were all standing in the window of the chelsea, with the famed neon sign behind us and we sang the song. it was the first time we’d all been able to hear each other’s harmonies coupled with the atmosphere of that once glamorous, now seedy room. wow. we all got goosebumps.

jeth is magical. he’s quirky and mercurial. maybe this is a hallmark of a great artist. i’d love to see the world the way he sees it. he’s easy to work with, fun to be around and he has a loyal crew of guys who are all princes.

we all felt so much a part of the process, so proud of the overall beauty of the shoot. due to some miscommunication, we ended up not getting a makeup artist….so we all did our own hair and makeup and we all wore our own clothes (although since we are similar sizes, we swapped a lot!) but i think this made the experience all the more special, more real. we felt the honesty of the song and what we want belle starr to be. we were all just singing fred’s stunning song, being ourselves.

i hope you enjoy the video half as much as we enjoyed making it. we are so thrilled with how it turned out and excited to show you. thank you to everyone who had a hand in it. truly, truly unforgettable.

a special thank you to jeth, joel stewart and our friends at cmt canada.
x,
miranda

Today would be the birthday of the jazz guitar innovator, Djanogo Reinhardt.  Having grown up in a Romany caravan where he survived a fire that left him with only two funcitonal fingers on his left hand,  Django became an iconic character in the histories of jazz music, Romany culture and Hollywood movies.

He created the Hot Club of France along with his brother and the great violin player, Stephane Grappelli, in the early days of World War II, and it was probably his music that saved him from the Nazi holocaust that killed more than one million Roma people.  This clip is pieced together but gives a sense of the intense energy contained in Djanogo’s music:

Django’s music and surrounding legend have been celebrated in movies like Chocolat, where Johnny Depp’s Roma character plays a nice version of Django’s ‘Minor Swing’, Woody Allen’s Sweet and Lowdown, The Triplets of Belleville, and on numerous soundtracks.

Probably the place where Django’s name is held in most reverence today is among young Romany musicians.  I can remember, some years ago in Spain,  sitting and listening to his exuberant melodies played by Gitano guitar players who found pride in their heritage through Django’s musical legacy.  Here’s another clip, this one from a Djano Reinhardt Festival that captures that same spirit:

stopping at a downtown

picture framing shop

late for dinner and unprepared

for an account of death in Dawson City

the aged artist laid cool upon a couch

in the porch

hand-knitted socks, sweater, toque

Hudson Bay blanket wrapped

beside the despised dog

that predeceased him slightly

until the trip south

accompanying his son

in the bed of a pickup truck

This is the sort of thing that can make a long, Canadian winter bearable.  Catherine MacLellan, a dearly loved singer/songwriter from PEI, brings her famous Pie-Off event to Port Hope, ON for one night only. Catherine and her musical guests will perform a concert in the midst of a pie contest in a charming church hall (this will be delicious in so many ways).

If you’d like to participate, bring along your best pie (two categories, sweet and savoury, and, of course, the crust must be homemade).  Alternatively, you could bring along your good taste and help us choose the best pies.

Admission will be by donation (suggested minimum is $10) and Catherine has generously offered the proceeds from the evening to Green Wood Coalition, which does grassroots community work in Port Hope.

Arriving in the dead of winter, this evening is going to shine as something truly memorable. And did I mention, delicious?

Here’s a slice Catherine MacLellan music from another delicious evening, in my backyard:

puck slap valley town
snowing memories revive
North Ontario

In the bleak mid-winter

Frosty wind made moan,

Earth stood hard as iron,

Water like a stone;

Snow had fallen, snow on snow,

Snow on snow

-Christina Rossetti

]]> http://davidsheffield.wordpress.com/2012/01/18/1354/feed/ 0 davidsheffield rosehips http://davidsheffield.wordpress.com/2012/01/17/give-up-to-grace/ http://davidsheffield.wordpress.com/2012/01/17/give-up-to-grace/#comments Tue, 17 Jan 2012 10:19:53 +0000 David Sheffield http://davidsheffield.wordpress.com/?p=1346 ]]>

“Give up to grace. The ocean takes care of each wave ’til it gets to shore. You need more help than you know.”

-Rumi