CFN – It was a dark, cold and blustery night on Saturday but well worth the effort to brave the weather and venture out to the St. Lawrence Acoustic Stage in Morrisburg. It was another one of the Intimate Acoustic programs where the Stage features emerging artists.
The first set was performed enthusiastically by Alex Boyd & Ian Sabourin. These teenagers usually perform as members of the popular Ottawa group Riot Police but were there as a duo. Their relaxed stage presence was impressive and they even wrote a song just for the occasion.
Christina Tracy took the stage next accompanied by Brian Flynn and gave us a trio of smooth hauntingly beautiful songs.
The last set before the break featured the Douglas Poirier Trio from Cornwall. This was the first time the trio performed in front of a live audience and the audience, myself included, thought they did quite well. The drums, although expertly played, did tend to overwhelm the guitars but that may have been more of a matter of the venue.
The second half of the program began with Genevieve Lacroix performing a trio of her own jazz/folk songs. Gen was a little lost for words when introducing her songs but once she started performing it was the audience that were lost for words.
The fifth performer on the program was Binaeshee-Quae from Pic River First Nation. During her three songs we saw a strong confident singer who relates personal stories with a sense of whimsy in her song writing.
The final group for the evening was the Ottawa based drum group Kunundrum. This eight person troop which include current Stage board member Tony McCadden and previous board member Jeanne Ward perform music with West African, Haitian and Cuban rhythms. I had to stand at the back of the theater to take it all in with my camera and I had the overwhelming urge to start dancing with the drum beat. That would not have been a pretty sight so I focused on trying to gett it all on video.
This was the last performance for the fall season but the acoustic music will be back on the stage on February 16th with Natalie Zukerman. For more information on future performances please go to the St. Lawrence Acoustic Stage website.
