The Chantrelles

*See Review URL* - Feedback Magazine (Quarterly Magazine for CFUV 101.9 FM)

"In this post-post-everything musical universe we find ourselves in, it’s always comforting to hear classic sounds from talented bands without the help of a Macbook. Whiskey Chief and the Chantrelles linked to the past, where they respectively revived funkadelic ’70s grooves and mid-’60s rhythm and blues.
Vancouver’s Whiskey Chief kicked off the night with “Dyno Egg,” a dirty little funk fest with greasy horns and Stevie Wonder keys, before floating away in a spacey Floydian breakdown. They easily drew the biggest crowd of the night, not in terms of numbers, but the sheer size of the dudes dancing up a storm in front of the stage. This high energy group had amazing stage presence for a band with no front man, or vocals. Members broke the fourth wall, jumping into the crowd to share a dance, while bassist Dave Wise rode through the crowd on the burly shoulders of Dreadnoughts bassist Andrew Hay.
Victoria’s eight-piece Motown machine the Chantrelles, on the other hand, had soul siren Chance Lovett leading the proceedings, with the audience eating up slow-cooked Memphis grit from the palm of her hand from the first song to the last. Lovett has grace, poise, and powerful pipes, and her well-dressed backing band is sympathetic to her every whim, bending and swinging the music to the funky beat.

However, this soul show was almost a no show. Earlier in the day, the band’s van broke down in Hope, after three-and-a-half weeks on a Cross Canada tour to Montreal and back. They had to cab into Vancouver while BCAA saved the day, towing the van to the Biltmore.
The Chantrelles didn’t let this minor setback get them down, as they plowed through a set of retro soul tunes that would have sounded right at home in Muscle Shoals Studios between sessions by Wilson Pickett and Aretha Franklin.
“Ain’t Nobody Home” was driven by a rippling clean guitar tone, punctuated by the occasional Who-style crunch and killer back-up vocals and harmonies. A call and response breakdown drove most of the already enthusiastic audience into a frenzy.
But the band also knew when to slow things down, like on “Ooh Me.” This show-stopper has all the makings of a classic slow jam for a ‘60s school gym dance.
The Chantrelles brought ‘60s soul music back to life. The band is true to the groove laid down by Stax house band Booker T. and the MGs and the interplay of trumpet and sax are the Cool Whip on their soul food for the ears.
The Chantrelles are not as forward thinking as Janelle Monae and not as focused on the past as Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, but luckily, that leaves them stuck in the present with us." - Discorder

It would appear the Garden City has officially caught the soul music bug.

"There's a total revival happening, and it touches on a bunch of music scenes," said Tim Horner of Victoria, who co-owns La-Ti-Da Records with Vancouver's Dale Davies. "It all kind of intersects."

A Garden City Soul Revue, the triple-bill Horner has booked for Saturday at Club 9ONE9, kicks off a multi-venue night of entertainment that could end up being the night that defines the city's soul scene for years to come.

Sets by Vancouver's the Ballantynes and Victoria's Chantrelles, two groups coming at soul from different vantage points, will be bookended on Saturday by two all-vinyl sets of soul music spun by local DJ duo the Truth Soundsystem. After the early-show antics at Club 9ONE9, Horner, Davies and members of the Ballantynes will head over to Smiths Pub on Courtney Street (where Horner spun soul music for six years) for an after-concert, vinyl-only set of soul music. Across town, Chris Lawrence and Mike Sharp of the Truth Soundsystem will do the same at Temple Late Night on Fort Street for an after-party of their own, one that runs until the wee hours of Sunday.

Options - that's the best part about the soul music scene in Victoria, according to Horner.

"It's not always just four white dudes. There's more variety, there's more multiculturalism," he said.

By avoiding the pratfalls of musical trends from the distant and recent past (rock-rap, dubstep, swing) that have come and gone in an instant, soul music has endured. The official sound of the '60s - thanks primarily to Motown and its offshoots - returned with a vengeance in the 2000s, making stars out of everyone from Amy Winehouse to Mayer Hawthorne.

Horner is delighted that locals are coming back to soul music in large numbers at the moment. Not that long ago, Horner recalls, audiences were fickle. He started spinning soul music at Smiths Pub back in 2006, but the genre took a while to catch on.

"I caught a lot of flack trying to play soul music at first," he said with a laugh. "People didn't want it."

Victoria can't seem to get enough of it nowadays, especially in terms of DJ nights dedicated to the form.

The most notable is the Truth Soundsytem's Tuesday night residency at Smiths, which explores the Jamaican side of soul. Other nights are appearing regularly, including The Soul Down, a monthly residency which gets under way tonight at the Fort Street Café with a mixture of funk, soul and R&B.

"Where the resurgence is happening is in terms of the DJ nights," Horner said. "But there are bands, too. People coming up through jazz band programs in high school are seeing things like Daptone make what they are learning in school cool and making it relevant."

One of the local soul bands directly inspired by Brooklyn's Daptone Records and its most popular export, Sharon Jones and the DapKings, is eight-piece act the Chantrelles.

Four of the group's eight members are classically trained products of the Camosun College jazz music program, experience that has helped the group progress quickly during its 18 months together.

The young group has already found followers, the majority of whom dig that the band is playing traditional soul music of their own invention. "That style of music is so accessible to everybody," said keyboardist Erin Dwyer.

"It's very uplifting. We try to follow the standard that '60s soul music had, and it seems to have worked. People are coming out."

That her group arrived at a time when local fans are being reintroduced to the roots of soul music, in addition to its many sub-genres, is not something Dwyer expected. "But it seems we have come along at a time when people are interested in that style of music."

Jarrod O'dell, frontman for the Ballantynes, a group that is signed to Horner's La-Ti-Da label, has seen soul music thriving in Vancouver for the better part of three years, thanks primarily to the East Van Soul Club, the Vancouver monthly he cohosts.

Despite being one of five competing soul nights in the city, his note-perfect residency (O'dell plays only vinyl 45s) sells out the Biltmore Cabaret without fail.

O'dell came up with the idea for what he calls his "garage gospel" group after witnessing a rabid audience reaction each month at East Van Soul Club. That his band found success right out of the gate - with just one twosong release to its credit, and only three shows under its belt - is a testament to the timeless appeal of soul music.

"It's really good music that everyone likes," O'dell said of soul music. "You don't run into anybody who hates soul music. It's just never said. Nobody dislikes it. You'll find something for everybody." - The Province