Winter
blooms
Madviolets Lisa Marie MacIsaac and Brenley MacEachern among
leaders of roots revival in city Part of burgeoning roots-
flavoured Winterfolk III festival this weekend, writes Greg
Quill
(Copyright (c) 2005 Toronto Star, All Rights Reserved. )
"To hell with radio ... we're playing music to please
ourselves!"
Lisa Marie MacIsaac - the fiddling younger sister of
Canada's infamous Mad King of Fiddlers, Ashley MacIsaac, and partner with
Brenley MacEachern in the Toronto-based duo Madviolet - is uttering what has
become the mantra of independent musician/songwriters in this country.
Unsupported by any mainstream radio format, the
traditional strain that is the blood of Canadian musical culture has only
grown stronger in isolation and commercial neglect, and is perversely richer
and more vital now than at any time in the past 30 years.
MacIsaac and guitarist MacEachern may have sensed that
they were better suited for a seat at the folk music table back in 1999,
when they rose together from the ashes of the progressive folk/pop outfit
zoebliss and reinvented themselves as Madviolet - the name comes from a
woman they met in a trailer park in Roswell, N.M., home to alien conspiracy
theorists and wacky cosmic boffins - but the proof finally came late last
year, after they'd had a crack at the big time.
Sometime in 2003 they'd come to the attention of producer,
writer, musician and composer John Reynolds, whose prodigious credits
include work with such pop luminaries as Sinead O'Connor, Peter Gabriel,
Natacha Atlas and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Adam Ant, Simply Red, Bjrk and U2.
Reynolds brought MacEachern and MacIsaac - both Cape Bretoners - to London
to record their debut CD, Worry the Jury in his Notting Hill studio. It was
every young wannabe's dream come true.
Except it didn't come true, not in the way dreams of
instant stardom are supposed to. A couple of tracks ("Light It Up" and "Wake
Up") got a brief nod on pop radio, but by and large, Reynolds' lavish
production did little to bring Madviolet to the centre of the mainstream
music arena.
Besides, MacIsaac admits, even with a top-notch band, the
material as recorded is virtually impossible to duplicate in live
performance.
That won't stop them from going ahead with a full band
performance tomorrow night in a double-header with festival party girl Ember
Swift at the Mod Club (722 College St., $10 @ 416-588- 4663, $12 @ the
door), but it's the Madviolet duo, more or less unplugged at this weekend's
Winterfolk III urban roots music festival at several venues in the
Broadview/Danforth area, that will give a more accurate indication of the
young performers' more earnest intentions.
"Ninety seven per cent of the work we've done is in the
roots/ folk area," says MacEachern. "Playing with the band frees us up in
lots of ways, and allows us to be more inventive musicians, but working as a
duo gives us plenty of room to experiment as well - just in a different way.
"And the new songs we're writing reflect what we've been
exposed to in recent months, on the Gordon Lightfoot Tribute tour, on the
Huron Carole tour, and opening for Ron Sexsmith - more folk- oriented,
country, and rootsy music."
Madviolet has also scored a pair of nominations (Best New
Artist and Best Pop Recording) in the 2005 East Coast Music Awards, to be
staged Feb. 20 in Sydney, N.S., and received an international touring grant,
courtesy of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters' Radio Starmaker
program, to help underwrite their first tour of Australia in March, when the
duo will be featured on some of that country's top festival bills.
"We love the folk scene," says MacIsaac, who has a secret
life as an occasional cast member - playing Michelle Phillips - in fellow
Cape Bretoner Denny Doherty's stage musical, Dream a Little Dream, a
romantic reminiscence of his time in the famed 1960s pop group, The Mamas &
The Papas.
"I started in the show three summers ago, when it was part
of the Cape Breton Summertime Revue, and did a three-month stint in Toronto.
We even took the show to New York. Denny's relaunching it in the U.S. with a
production in Kansas City. I start the morning after the ECMAs and fly to
Australia the day after the last performance.
"It's great for my vocal chops, but the best part is after
the show, when Denny starts rolling out his stories. He's a brilliant
storyteller, very emotional, very funny."
Though they've performed a few festivals in their time
together, this weekend will be their first Winterfolk experience. The
brainchild of Toronto singer/songwriter and guitar picker Brian Gladstone,
in its third year the urban folk festival has proven popular among musicians
frozen out of roadwork during the long winter, and has gained official
recognition by the City Council, residing at the heart of its post-SARS,
Toronto-boosting Winterfest/ Wintercity promotion.
"That means we get listed on official Toronto propaganda,
but no money," says Gladstone, an electrical widget manufacturer who
personally underwrote the first Winterfolk in 2003, and lost a bundle making
sure contracted performers received their dues.
Since then, the festival has been reorganized as a
board-run event under the auspices of the Association of Artists for A
Better World, a non-profit organization intended, says Gladstone, "to
inform, encourage, and stimulate artists' awareness of social, cultural and
ecological issues and to provide ways they can communicate expressions of
interest in those important issues."
This year Winterfolk is moving from its original home in
the College and Spadina area to slightly more upscale digs at Broadview and
Danforth.
"This area gives us more room to expand, with six venues
and seven stages all within a short walk of each other, and 10 more venues
in the neighbourhood for future growth," says Gladstone, whose festival
template has provided the pattern for a similar summertime roots music event
in Waterloo and the Tuza Festival of Music and Arts in Toronto, first staged
last April.
Winterfolk is now a fixture on the official North American
folk festival calendar, providing workshops (Gladstone calls them "musical
documentaries") and performance opportunities for new artists from all over
the continent, as well as a full roster of concerts over three days and
nights.
One of the reasons Gladstone is not performing at any
ticketed event this year is that the larger, more complex event has placed
an almost impossible burden on the artistic director.
"I thought No. 3 would be easier, but it keeps growing,
and with every change there's a new set of challenges."
It should be noted that this reporter has been a
performing supporter of Winterfolk and Gladstone's out-of-season efforts to
promote local roots music talent since the festival's inception. I'm on the
bill again this year, along with many of the finest folk, country and blues
singers, musicians and songwriters in Canada.
For full program details and ticket information, go to
www.winterfolk.com.
Who Madviolet
When Saturday @ 11 p.m.
Where Allen's, 143 Danforth Ave.
Tickets $40 weekend pass and $25 day pass @
www.ticketmaster.ca, phone 416.870.8000; $20 day pass at venues listed @
www.winterfolk.com
