This Week In Art/Culture/Entertainment
By John Swartz
What a month this has been so far. Mariposa Arts produced and performed fantastically with Jesus Christ Superstar, the City killed summer theater as we know it, OMAH’s annual Carmichael exhibit opened and it may be the best yet, the Lightfoot Days Festival was a blast, it snowed. Actually, it snowed October 31, but you had to see it to believe it because it melted as it hit the ground.
But first there are a few things ahead you should know about. The Orillia Youth Centre has some concerts (there’s more?) happening. One of them is Thursday, November 13 at Creative Nomad Studios with Jet Lips and Brat Stepson from Orillia, along with Guilhem and the Bamboo Bones from Montreal.
December 5 the youth center has Grate Northern (very good Grateful Dead tribute), Sean Kelly and Andy Sheldon of The Samples at the Quality Inn (Highwayman). This is already at 60% sold, so get tickets online. Kevin Gangloff sent a note he has an announcement to make on Friday. He said it’s huge. Knowing the miracles he pulls off for concerts, if he said the Beatles are getting back together for one show here, I’d believe him.
Dylan Court is involved with that concert as a member of Brat Stepson. He’s also got some others happening we’ll get into below. Nate Robertson plays drums in Jet Lips. Guilhem is a Punk/Folk musician backed by the Bamboo Bones.
Showtime is at 7 p.m. and you can get tickets online now, or at the door.
Brewery Bay has Casper Skulls and Domicile playing Dec. 15. Domicile is from Orillia. Dylan is promoting this show. You can get tickets online.
November 21, Arts Orillia has a show happening at the Opera House with several bands playing. Taylor Knox, Sleepy Jan, Still Deciding and Lincoln Barager are performing starting at 7 p.m. Tickets at the door. I haven’t seen Taylor is a while, not since the Brownstone, Lincoln was part of a duo which played at the jazz fest; I’m sure he’s not doing jazz for this gig, and Sleepy Jan is Karlie Cole (bass/vocals), Alison Ford (drums), Matt Waring (guitar), and Dylan Court (guitar/vocals
Ho, Ho, Oh
Have you looked at a calendar lately? Mine says December is just two weeks away. Time flies when you are waffling between being disappointed and relieved at times how the year went. That also means Christmas is pretty close. Oh crap, one more of several things to do. The list includes keeping track of Christmas events and concerts. First out of the gate, a tradition around here, is the annual Christmas Prelude concert with the Orillia Concert Band at St. Paul’s Centre December 6. You can get tickets online
The Orillia Silver Band has their concert December 14 at the Opera House – and they are playing Russian Christmas Music. If you have not heard either the band or the tune before, you must go. The band ranks in my books as the best music ensemble we have and the tune has been something I listen to it year-round (I’m listening to it now) for 50 years, it’s spectacular. I’ll have ticket info next week.
Part of the Silver Band will be playing with the Barrie choral group Bravado in a Christmas concert November 28 and 29 at the Collier Street United Church.. You can get tickets online.
The Cellar Singers are doing two pieces, Fantasia on Christmas by Ralph Vaughn Williams and Messe de Minuit pour Noel by Marc-Antoine Charpentier at St. James’ Anglican Church December 20. You can get tickets online.
Green Haven Shelter For Women’s annual reading of A Christmas Carol is happening December 18 at the Opera House. The performers are Aurora Browne, Christy Bruce, Tereesa Pavlinek, Naomi Snieckus, and Jane van de Graff, with Bruce Pirrie directing. Get tickets online.
Arts Orillia has a concert at the Opera House December 3 with music students from our three high schools performing. Get tickets online.
You probably could make some cash running out to the neighbourhood casino and betting I missed something.
Reviews
Quickly, because I already reviewed it, but you only have four chances to see MAT’s Jesus Christ Superstar before Sunday afternoon. Get your ticket now online, we’ll still be hear when you get back.
The Lightfoot Days Festival was awesome. From the concert with the Lightfoot Band on October 30 to the closing gig with the High Steppin’ Strutters at Picnic the afternoon of November 2 I had lots of fun. There were quite a few people who travelled from Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Louisiana and California who came for the weekend.
Things I learned; The Wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald we know is the first take. Rick Haynes said at the workshop, it might have been at the Memories of Lightfoot event, the band used up 3 and a half days of their 5 day studio booking to record the tunes for the Summertime Dream album. Gord had been fiddling around throughout the recording session with what was to become The Wreck, but said no to recording it because it wasn’t finished. It was finished, lyrically, but Gord hadn’t sorted out the arrangement. The recording engineer said they had the time book so why not roll tape and give it a whirl with the band and use it as a demo to continue working on.
As Rick said, the band had not played a note of it, but they’d been hearing it for three days and Gord gave out some instructions (Barry Keane asked when Gord wanted him to come in with the drums and Gord said he’d give him a nod). And they played the tune straight through.
Gord like the playback. The band tried it once more, but it wasn’t as good as the first time. It turned out to be what Gord was looking for so it became part of the album, a single, and history. There are very few songs which became hits.
John U. Bacon, author of The Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald was part of both workshops and the Memories event. He was adamant telling the audience that his research and interviews convinced him Gord’s song had two effects. One, it made the Edmund Fitzgerald wreck famous, only second to the Titanic, and because of the popularity of the song and it keeping the sinking in the public eye, there was deep interest in examining all the issues and failures of shipping on the Great Lakes which led to new regulations and practices. Those changes led to reducing the count of ships lost during the previous 100 years (6,000 ships) by 100%.
There was a screening of Lightheaded, John Corcoran’s documentary account of Gord’s British tour in 2016. It had been almost 40 years since he played there. Most of the doc focused on Corcoran and his family’s travels following the band and it also included clips of interviews conducted at Gord’s home. There were also clips of interviews with other fans about being able to see Gord in person for the first time in their lives. Well, except for one fan, Andy Mauck, caught at a side trip to the Massey Hall annual gig; of course, unknown at the time, Andy would play a more critical role with the band.
Let’s talk about the band. Comparisons are tricky, but there is a marked difference between hearing the band play the songs now and when Gord was alive. Gord had some particularities about how his shows were performed and while it probably sounded excellent on stage, out front things were different. He did not have his own mic boosted in the mix and the general level of audio was not what anyone would call loud. The focus of the show was entirely on him.
Now, the first thing anyone who has seen both versions will say is there is a louder, fuller sound. No one was complaining before, but it is markedly different. The show includes the band members each getting some time to tell a story about their time in the band, or how they got in the band. The audience loves that part of the show. It’s really difficult to say Andy is not the right replacement for Gord. I sat through the show and several times thought, ‘that’s exactly how Gord sounded before he had the aneurysm.”
At the Memories event, the flow of the storytellers was broken up by performances of Gord’s tunes by Don James and Jack Nicolle, Steve Porter and Samantha Windover (with Steve Porter accompanying). Samantha was extraordinary with her rendition of If You Could Read My Mind. It was not like Gord’s at all, but nonetheless beautiful.
Ken ‘Jiggs” McDonald told a story of how he found out who Gord was asking about in Did She Mention My Name. It turns out it was a girl named Patti Westington (who no longer lives in Orillia). She was not someone Gord had dated, or anyone thought he had any interest in, but she did go out with Terry Whalen for a while. Ken mentioned he confirmed it with Barry Keane.
Steve also played at the closing ceremony at Mariposa Market and with the High Steppin’ Strutters at Picnic afterward. You can count on him to sing Canadian Railroad Trilogy, of which he does a fine job. He also does a great rendering of Song For A Winter’s Night.
More
November 2nd’s fundraiser for the Orillia Museum of Art and History at St. Paul’s Centre with Jacquie Dancyger Arnold, Ross Arnold, Hugh Coleman, Blair Bailey, Laura Kelly, and Gail Spencer performing was well attended. A week before, museum director Ninette Gyorody told me there had been less than 100 tickets sold, so it was nice to see they doubled that amount.
The thing I remember most about it, aside from Jacquie’s amazing rendition of the 3rd movement of Saint Seans’s Concerto in G Minor with Blair Bailey playing organ, Hugh Coleman on clarinet and Ross on tympani, is the duet Blair and Laura sang of Anything You Can Do. Blair missed a side career as a comedic actor. This is the third time I’ve seen him acting up on stage and he has a good sense of timing, humour and theatrics to generate a laugh of two.
The other thing is something I’ve said before and was reminded of during the course of the show, we have such a great pool of talent here that a concert of mostly classical music, and not easy to play music, can be presented as well as you’d find in larger cities, like the one south of us, and I don’t mean Barrie.
Hang On There
The OMAH annual Carmichael landscape show, Tradition Transformed, is up to see, and this year’s crop of entries is maybe the best yet. I mentioned to Ninette Gyorody that my perception is there are more paintings in the show I would gladly sneak out the back door with to hang in my place than any previous year, about half or more of the show. Usually there’d only be enough to hide comfortably under a trench coat.
There were prize winners. Frank Myers won the Philip Jackman Photography Prize of $500; Diana Hillman won the Norma Duggan Award of $250; Linsday Smail won the Kevin J. Batchelor Emerging Artist Award of $1,000; and Tanya Fenkell won the big one, the Jurors’ Prize of $1,500.
I looked over the list of artists who made the cut during the week ahead of the opening and saw one name that made me think, “could it be?” He had a website and I surfed in and thought I was pretty sure it is. It did turn out to be my old boss at Shaw TV, Frank Myers. He lives in Burlington now. He moved there to manage a Cogeco station for a few years before taking an unplanned early retirement (happens a lot in TV). He has gained quite a reputation as a photographer since.
You should take a few minutes to stop by and see the show, it really is outstanding this year. It was so outstanding I completely forgot to go upstairs and see the John Gould: Travels Of The Mind And Body exhibit which opened the same day, that’s how much my head was swimming from the landscape show.
The Shorts
- Derick Lehmann has a 90s Dance Party Nov. 15 at ODAS Park and you can get tickets here.
- Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital Foundation has a gala happening Nov. 15 at Lakehead University. Music is by John Amato singing jazz standards. You can get tickets online.
- The tree lighting at the Opera House is Nov. 21 at 7:15 p.m. The Santa Clause Parade is Nov. 22 at 5 p.m. on Mississaga Street; to register a float or to volunteer check in here.
- The North Simcoe Art and Culture Awards night happens November 26 at Creative Nomad Studios. There are 27 nominees to cheer on and admission is free. It starts at 6 p.m.
- MAT’s Film Night at the Galaxy has Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight playing Dec. 3.
- One more of Gord’s guitars is up for auction. You can see the details for Lightfoot’s 1946 Gibson J-45 sunburst acoustic guitar here. As far as I’m concerned this is a steal. This is the same auctioneer that sold off many items from Gord’s estate months ago (and where OMAH”s memorabilia came form) at prices I consider to be woefully undervalued.
- The Orillia Concert Association has season tickets on sale (still only $90) and their lineup is: Terry Lim And Friends Feb. 22, Daniel Vnukowski March 22 and The Brooks, Ronai, Teske Trio May 3. All concerts are at 2:30 p.m. You can get the season tickets online.
- At OMAH also has the exhibits Gordon Lightfoot: Turning Back The Pages, in the small gallery on the main floor; and Tracing Places: Advertising In Orillia… Peter Street Fine Arts guest artist is Rick Barrett… Steph Dunn has a show/sale at the Rugby Hall) on the Old Barrie Road) Nov. 22 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. … Raune-lea Marshall, Deby Melillo, Mike Bailey, Linda Gidora And Norman Robert Catchpole are opening Red Dot Gallery at Orillia Square mall Dec. 2 at 3 p.m. and stay open for the month.
- Quayle’s Brewery has Cam Galloway playing Nov. 13; the Lightfoot Festival’s Gord’s birthday party (it’s early, his birthday is the 17th, with some music and storytelling (I’ll be one of the storytellers and thank fully for you not singing); Burke Erwin is in Nov. 15; Sydney Riely plays Nov. 16; Vince Therrien Nov. 20; and Andrew Walker Nov. 21 … the Hog ‘N Penny has an afternoon jam session every Sunday with Sean Patrick and others… Nov. 14 Geoff Booth, Craig Graham and Gerry Markman will be playing Gord’s music all night at the legion; $10 at the door… Upbeat Groove plays at Picnic Nov. 13… the ANAF club has an acoustic jam Nov. 13 at 7 p.m.; Beal Street plays Nov. 15
(Photos by Swartz – SUNonline/Orillia and Images Supplied) Main: Members of the Lightfoot Band and author John U. Bacon at Memories of Lightfoot.
