Recording: Sweet Pea

Artist: Sweet Pea

Song: What It Is

Recorded at The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge), March 23, 2018.

Sweet Pea - What It Is

With Long Winter taking over The Tranzac for the night, the regular Southern Cross programming was crammed together in the early part of the night before giving over to the all-ages spectacle. Hopefully that meant the early-arrivers got a chance to hear some excellent improvised music... plus this band full of excellent improvisers singing pop tunes with hearts wide open. Co-fronted by Rebecca Hennessy and Julia Hambleton, this combo offered plenty accordion/ukulele/clarinet, putting it in the zone of "quirky" folk bands like Ed's Redeeming Qualities — albeit with songs assembled by accomplished composers. Playing their album from top to bottom, there were hints of McGarrigle-esque harmonies and plenty pop smarts — give this song (with an ace guest turn from Tom Richards on trombone) a "rock" arrangement and it could easily pass for something from the jauntier edge of The Go-Betweens' songbook.

[Sweet Pea will be formally launching their CD with a celebration at The Tranzac on Friday, May 25th.]

Recording: Saint Dirt Elementary School

Artist: Saint Dirt Elementary School

Songs: Seven Minutes in Heaven + What Are You Thinking When You're Kissing

Recorded at The Music Gallery, April 29, 2016.

Saint Dirt Elementary School - Seven Minutes in Heaven

Saint Dirt Elementary School - What Are You Thinking When You're Kissing

In a talk before the show, composer/founder Myk Freedman told the story of how the band originally came into its Tranzac residency by taking over the "ragtime" night — and the logic behind that leap is as easy to understand as is the fact that the old-guard crowd on hand didn't think they were proper at all. But the notion of a modern-day ragtime band, with a conception of improvisation based on group interaction more than backline-plus-soloists gets to the heart of what they are doing.

Saint Dirt Elementary School's Tranzac-fuelled heyday was before I was paying close attention to such things and I mostly knew it as a previous way-station for several musicians I'd more familiar with in subsequent projects. But despite the fact that Freedman moved from T.O. to NYC more than a decade ago, the band has remained an occasionally-ongoing concern, regrouping during Freedman's summer visits home and on special occasions such as this fifteenth-anniversary celebration. Pulling tunes from his songbooks, the band played a set focused on its older material, including these two tunes from what was a sort of "kissing" suite.

Recording: This is Awesome

Artist: This is Awesome

Song: I Just Wasn't Made for These Times [The Beach Boys cover]

Recorded at The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge), January 20, 2016.

This is Awesome - I Just Wasn't Made for These Times

Headed by master guitarist Christine Bougie, this quartet (including Dafydd Hughes, wurlitzer; Julia Hambleton, clarinet; and Andrew Downing, cello) brought an absolutely packed crowd to the Southern Cross Lounge to hear their front-to-back instrumental re-interpretation of The Beach Boy's seminal Pet Sounds album. Stripping the concept of composer Brian Wilson's "teenage symphony to God" down to a chamber quartet, these arrangements brought out the underlying yearning melancholy, especially when, such as here, Bougie switched over to lap steel. The group has essayed the album before and promises to come back to it again — given the turnout for this, expect to see the next performance in a larger room. (It was also recorded direct to tape by the band, so keep an eye out for a chance to hear this in hi-fidelity.)

[Christine Bougie and Dafydd Hughes (along with Jessie Baird) will be back at The Tranzac tomorrow (Monday, January 25th in the early slot at the Southern Cross Lounge.]