This Week In Art/Culture/Entertainment
By John Swartz
The Roots North Music Festival featured a number of great performances on the main stage last weekend.
Friday night’s program opened with Bella Frances playing. It’s been at least a year since I’ve seen her perform and she appeared more confident with her singing and with her stage presence. Her guitar playing was more sophisticated than just strumming chords and her melodies were more adventurous than others might write in the early stages of their careers.
Doug Paisley was next. I don’t recall much of his performance. He was a competent pick, He just didn’t do anything especially memorable.
The Doghouse Orchestra closed out the night boisterously. This 8 piece group (sax, flute, fiddle, pedal steel, drums, bass and guitar) blasted through a number of tunes, then the sax player picked up bagpipes. It was time for some Amazing Grace, though an arrangement of it no one in the audience ever heard before. They followed up with some other interesting covers of the Righteous Brothers Unchained Melody , Paul Simon’s 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover, and a stirring a capella version of – The Auld Triangle we’ve heard Irish Mythen sing many, but not enough, times, except this time the whole band sang it led by lead singer Donovan Locke.
Saturday night Shawna Caspi opened. She sang some nice tunes, and I’ll take a moment here to comment the sound mix was very good throughout the weekend. Mark Webster was a little worried before Doghouse took the stage because two of the musicians weren’t available for soundcheck, but things were fine when it counted.
Meredith Moon played her first gig in Orillia with a band. Her performance earned a standing ovation and they didn’t even get a chance to leave the stage to come back and do one more.
The interesting thing about the last act, Mary Frances, is her last name, Leahy, was left off the promo material. This might have given some clue as to what to expect. Granted I could have looked her up and known, but I didn’t.
She came out smoking playing fiddle and step dancing. As a drummer, separating what the feet and hands are doing is not a foreign concept, but holy cow; she does so to extreme, floating across the stage while her feet are tapping a mile per bar of music. The second tune was not a tune, but an exposition of dancing joined by her guitarist (and accordion player).
Then she went over to the piano and played equally as expertly. One of the tunes was as jazzy as it gets, and playing jazz piano is not something you just do or those in the house who know Jazz will tune out. She plays Jazz as well as the Celtic flavoured music.
She most definitely came to amaze and mesmerize and also got a standing ovation.
Sunday afternoon, a song writer’s circle was held at Creative Nomad Studios. I missed the first bit of it because of the event below. Jamie Haffenden, Rebekah Hawker, Meredith Moon and Danielle Duval took turns singing songs they wrote in the same manner as a Mariposa workshop.
The last round was fantastic. I remember Rebekah’s turn because I’ve heard her sing Quit My Habit several times. Meredith sang a song I don’t know the title of, but the lyrics, melody and guitar accompaniment is as good as anything her father was known for.
Organ Master Retires
Last Sunday Marshal Martin gave his last turn at the manual of St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church’s 5,000+ pipe organ on the occasion of his retirement. The sanctuary was full with at least 400 people in attendance.
He peppered the concert with information about the organ and its history with the church. He began his concert with a piece of music he said was the first piece played in public on the instrument. As he was preambling what that tune was going to be I thought, ‘I’ll bet it’s Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor’ which turned out to be the piece he played.
How else would anyone show of the capability of an organ as large as that one is?
Marshall told me he isn’t quitting playing all together; he will show up occasionally to spin the keys just to not lose decade’s worth of accumulated chops, and he is keeping his other job as a family care provider at Mundell Funeral Home helping people navigate the many financial decisions they have to make.
Things You Should Know
Don Tapscott was in town Tuesday to deliver a lecture based on his new book, You to the Power of Two: Redefining Human Potential in the Age of Identic AI .
Half of it was explaining what Indentic AI is, he coined the term; the online collection of information about you and how AI uses that info. The other half about the downside and how people can protect themselves.
I was asked to ask a question to get things going during the Q&A, so I asked two. Don used an AI generated avatar of himself to answer some of the questions, which he demonstrated before I asked mine. So my first question – does you avatar have 6 or 4 fingers? I am proud to say got a great laugh from the nearly full Opera House.
My real question was about the nefarious intentions of those who own the largest AI companies, that AI too often returns wrong information (a good example of just how wrong can be watched in this video), and the ineffectiveness of legislative bodies to regulate their behavior, how do we encourage tech savvy people to stand for office.
Don agreed with my assessment of the individuals I named (Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Sam Altman, and Larry Elleson – I missed naming Marc Andreesen) as not being the kind of people who should have the control and power they do have. He did say he did not know the answer to the core of my question, getting competent leadership in government who will do something for us instead of them, other than to say his experience is – change starts with people getting together to start movements and indicated the audience was a good place to start
Saturday Night
A concert Saturday evening at St. Paul’s Centre by promoted by hxmesweethxme featuring Samantha Windover, Steven Henry, Michael Martyn and Ronnie Douglas promises to be great for entertainment, and hopefully will be great for raising money for Mariposa House Hospice.
I suspect these will all be solo turns on stage. You can get tickets online, or at the door for the 7 p.m. show.
Orillia Concert Band’s 40th
The Orillia Concert Band is celebrating its 40th anniversary May 2 at St. Paul’s Centre. The concert menu starts with Passfield’s Parade, a tune written by Suds Sutherland to honour former Park Street Collegiate music teacher, Stan Passfield who was the founder of the band.
Then Randy Hoover will give the baton to Stan who will conduct the next piece, Amparita Roca. The next two pieces, A Trumpeter’s Lullaby and Stranger on the Shore feature Mark Smith on trumpet, and Hugh Coleman on clarinet respectively. Other pieces in the first half include The Magnificent Seven and Finlandia.
In the second half former conductor James Hiltz will open conducting La La Land and Roy Menagh will conduct English Folk Song Suite. Christina Bosco will sing I Dreamed a Dream from Les Mis with James Campbell accompanying on piano.
You can get tickets for the 7:30 p.m. concert online
The Shorts
- The Cellar Singers have Highland Harmony happening Apr. 25 at 7 p.m. at St, James’ Anglican Church. This is a night of performances by soloists and small ensembles with Highland theme, which means dress the part. There will be food, drink and a silent auction. You can get tickets online.
- Anne Walker is having her summer concert series at the Coulson Church again this summer. All concerts are at 2 p.m. and the lineup is this: Apr. 26 Angie Nussey, May 31 Eileen McGann, June 28 Ian Bell, and Sept. 27 Anne Walker. You can get tickets online.
- Orillia Secondary School students are performing the play, Legally Blond: The Musical at the school Apr. 29 to May 1 at 6:30 p.m. and May 2 at 2 p.m. Get tickets at the school.
- St. Paul’s is doing The Wizard of Oz May 20 to 24. You can get tickets at the church. There are matinees on the Saturday and Sunday of the run and a preview pay what you can performance on May 20 at 7:30 p.m. They also need volunteers to help with various aspects of the production. Contact howesfamily@sympatico.ca to help in the box office; 123cdavid@gmail.com to be an usher; cmar75111@gmail.com to help with dinner (oh yeah, you can get dinner – limit 50 people- before the shows); cjbrown099@gmail.com to help the kids in the play be where they need to be and put on the right costumes; cjbrown099@gmail.comif you can do makeup; and mcwhinb@rogers.com to help get the programs ready.
- The Youth Centre has a fundraising concert June 13, venue to be announced, with the Weber Brothers, the Ronnie Douglas Blues Band and Andrew Ali/Josh Small. The first 100 tickets are on sale now online.
- There are a few concerts happening at the Opera House to be aware of. Classic Lightfoot Live plays May 3; Marc Jordan is here June 11. You can get tickets for any of those online.
- Bleeker has a smoking new tune out, great video too. You can see here.
- OMAH has these exhibits to see, the annual Women’s Day Art Show and Made in Orillia; and Icons and Alter Egos: Heroes, Villains, and Everything In-Between (Twin Lakes and OSS art student show), From Hand to Heirloom: The Art of Craft and the permanent display of artefacts from Gord’s estate. OMAH also has some job openings, permanent and for the summer. You can check out what is available and application criteria online. They are also looking for people who would like to join the board of directors. In particular they are looking for people with these skills: fundraising, legal affairs and governance, human resources, business management, and financial/accounting. You can find out more here.
- Quayle’s Brewery has Ian Chaplin playing Apr. 25; Daniel Humphries Apr. 26; Charlie McKittrick Apr. 30; and Marlin Gibbons May 1… the Hog ‘N Penny has No Great Mischief playing Apr. 25; and Sunday afternoons they have an open mic lead by Sean Patrick … Kensingtons has an open mic lead by Timmy Kehoe every Tuesday night… The ANAF Club has Charlotte and the Dirty Cowboys playing Apr. 25 and a jam session in the afternoon Apr. 26 at 2 p.m.
(Photos by Swartz – SUNonline/Orillia and Images Supplied) Main: Steven Henry, Ronnie Douglas, Samantha Windover and Michael Martyn have a fundraising concert Saturday night.
