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Ottawa Folk Festival
Reviewed Sunday
Whitehorse, the musical and marital duo that is Luke Doucet and Melissa McClelland, closed out this year’s lineup on the Tartan Homes stage Sunday night.
Both recognized artists in their own right, the two accompanied themselves with guitars, percussion, keyboards and electronic loops. Watching Doucet dash about the stage to switch instruments mid-tune made for an especially lively show.
“We’re just getting used to playing live concerts after working on our album,” he said at one point. Picking up his guitar, he promptly put it back down when he realized he was supposed to be on percussion. “I don’t know what … I’m doing!” he shouted.
There were other occasional blunders including forgotten lines, but the duo, buoyed by a forgiving audience, moved on.
Their set list shifted from the churning and angry Killing Time is Murder to Bruce Springsteen’s I’m on Fire to the gorgeous Emerald Isle which Doucet said was inspired by his wife (cue cheers from the audience).
Their voices and musical sensibilities blend well, producing something that, with Doucet’s always-startling guitar chops, actually is larger than the sum of the two parts.
Before Whitehorse, Belle Starr gave us twin fiddles, a guitar, vocal harmonies and step dancing. Ottawa native Stephanie Cadman is the fiddler/dancer (her band mates being Kendel Carson and Miranda Mulholland) and straps on her dancing shoes for some numbers. Born to move, she also sings, fiddles and, even when not wearing her dancing clogs, stomps out the rhythm.
The trio – they take turns singing lead and were accompanied by a bassist and drummer — played their own tunes, Dolly Parton’s Jolene and Fred Eaglesmith’s Summerlea.
They also covered Bruce Springsteen’s Tougher Than the Rest. Emmylou Harris has sung the tune, and one suspects she would have applauded Belle Starr’s version with its driving and scrappy fiddles. Talented and a delight on stage, these women should go places.
An excitable Ottawa DJ unaccountably dressed in an orange jumpsuit introduced John K. Samson, a.k.a. the frontman for Winnipeg’s the Weakerthans, Sampson as a songwriter takes a jaundiced view of much of the silliness that is contemporary life. The disconnect between artist and DJ was striking.
Accompanied by a fine guitarist/backup vocalist, Samson sang tunes like When I Write My Masterpiece (modeled, he explained, on Bob Dylan’s When I Paint My Masterpiece) and Letter in Icelandic from the Ninette San. He suggested dancing to the latter, adding, “though it is about a man dying of tuberculosis.”
Samson writes songs whose lyrics, at first listen, can appear graceless accretions of detail about Gestetner machines and the like. But the stories soon take on a compelling quality, although on Sunday sound bleed from Said the Whale who were performing nearby sometimes compromised that quality. - The Ottawa Citizen
Discography
CD - Belle Starr
1. Cry Love
2. New Girl Now
3. Freedom To Stay
4. Tougher Than The Rest
5. Arthur's Air
6. Same Old Scene
7. Pull Me Down
8. Charity Kiss
9. Love Is A Rose
10. Heartbreaker
11. Be A Man
12. Art O'Leary
13. Plough The Sea
EP - Burning of Atlanta
1. This Must Be The Place
2. Little White Lies
3. Summerlea
4. Jolene
5. Burning of Atlanta
Photos
Bio
How the West was one plus one plus one: meet Belle Starr, the talented new trio of Stephanie Cadman, Kendel Carson and Miranda Mulholland. The band’s namesake outlaw is a stereotype-flaunting renegade who did hard time for horse theft. Perhaps the fugitive Belle Starr is an extreme role model, but for a group that spent one of their first music video shoots learning how to hotwire a car, the Bandit Queen provides a certain kind of rebellious inspiration.
Make no mistake: Belle Starr is a band that defies expectations. On their first full-length album, the trio presents a cleverly curated collection of top-quality tunes, an unexpected repertoire rooted in their impeccable taste in modern music. From treasured Canadian indies to the marquee icons, Belle Starr puts their twist on the old time folk resurgence, tuning their fiddles to the more recent past.
As a whole, Belle Starr’s self-titled album orbits themes of love and identity. “Now whatcha gonna do when the planet shifts,” asks the opening track, John Hiatt's “Cry Love,” a catchy staccato kick-off that immediately dispels any assumptions that Belle Starr makes typical fiddle music. “New Girl Now,” penned by Jack Marks, is a tale of moving on while trying not to look back. This lively brush-off is told with countrified toe-tapping sass. Other highlights include the gritty romance of Springsteen's “Tougher Than The Rest,” and the graceful battle cry of Justin Rutledge's “Be A Man.” The album includes original Belle Starr instrumentals that strengthen the starry sky sparkle of their sound. “Arthur’s Air”, “Charity Kiss” and “Plough The Sea” draw three individual styles together, and fuse considerably modern influences with old time tradition.
There’s always a story behind a fiddle (or three). Stephanie Cadman, a champion step-dancer (who now provides Belle Starr’s rhythm section), speculates that, “fiddlers tend to choose an instrument close to the quality of their speaking voices. My violin has a lot of low end to its tone, which I like. I have a low voice, so my violin and I match. She doesn't have a name but she's definitely a woman too.” Kendel Carson brandishes an oddball German-made fiddle approximately a century old, recommended to her by her very first violin teacher. “It has a false label inside and it is slightly askew. I don’t mind, maybe I am too.” Finally, Miranda found her fiddle at Mariposa Folk Festival. Too bad it had an owner. Eventually, her friend sold it to her to buy a pedal steel. Of the coveted instrument, Miranda says, “It's a really growly and lovely violin and has a velvety dark tone. The only clue I have is a label inside that indicates that it was repaired in Toronto in 1895...so it's a bit of a mystery, which I like.”
Miranda, Kendel and Stephanie make an impressive trio, and bring experience from all genres. As busy solo artists, Miranda is a member of indie darlings Great Lake Swimmers; Kendel is well known in the Americana world, in part from her work with “Wild Thing” songwriter Chip Taylor; and Stephanie is a prize-winning fiddler and dancer from Ottawa.
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