Recording: Felicity Williams

Artist: Felicity Williams

Song: Everything in Time

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Rebecca Hennessy's Singer-Songwriter Circle), July 12, 2026.

Felicity Williams - Everything in Time

This iteration of Rebecca Hennessy's singer-songwriter night presented a somewhat oblong circle, with herself and Felicity Williams offering most of the songs — though bassist Michael Herring took a couple turns at the mic while guitarist Patrick O'Reilly offered a couple more compositional-type pieces. The interesting throughline with this grouping was that Hennessey and Williams once performed together (a decade and a half ago!) in Hobson's Choice — Hennessy mentioned afterward that that group's exquisite arrangements were based on the almost telepathic connection the players had from working together. This informal gathering was much more ad hoc in its musical set-up, with lead sheets being passed around and keys negotiated as musicians saw a lot of the pieces for the first time, but there were still plenty evidence of musical savvy as things fell together (with a guitar line, a trumpet solo, or a backing vocal) with grace and ease.

Excitingly, Felicity Williams used the night as a chance to test out some new songs — and also this one, which surfaced on the first album from her You Can Can project.

Recording: Rebecca Hennessy

Artist: Rebecca Hennessy

Song: Mistress of Misery

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Rebecca Hennessy's Singer-Songwriter Circle), July 12, 2026.

Rebecca Hennessy - Mistress of Misery

This iteration of Rebecca Hennessy's singer-songwriter night presented a somewhat oblong circle, with herself and Felicity Williams offering most of the songs — though bassist Michael Herring took a couple turns at the mic while guitarist Patrick O'Reilly offered a couple more compositional-type pieces. The interesting throughline with this grouping was that Hennessey and Williams once performed together (a decade and a half ago!) in Hobson's Choice — Hennessy mentioned afterward that that group's exquisite arrangements were based on the almost telepathic connection the players had from working together. This informal gathering was much more ad hoc in its musical set-up, with lead sheets being passed around and keys negotiated as musicians saw a lot of the pieces for the first time, but there were still plenty evidence of musical savvy as things fell together (with a guitar line, a trumpet solo, or a backing vocal) with grace and ease.

This day was also Hennessey and Herring's wedding anniversary, and each offered some songs in celebration of that fact — though this one was not one of those.

[Rebecca Hennessy's songwriters' circle is off this month, but keep your eye out for its return on Sunday, September 20th.]

Recording: Sarah Greene Preservation Society Trio

Artist: Sarah Greene Preservation Society Trio

Song: Nathan

Recorded at 918 Bathurst (The Sun Room), August 14, 2025.

Sarah Greene Preservation Society Trio - Nathan

The follow-up to Sarah Greene's Toronto Blues has been gestating for a fair while, but one consequence of that is that Greene has a big stockpile of songs now, and with her trusty collaborators (Michael Herring on bass, Paul Kolinski on guitar), the songs have a comfortably lived-in feeling.

You can check out the full set over on youtube:

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: Peripheral Vision

Artist: Peripheral Vision

Song: Mutual Humiliation Society

Recorded at The Tranzac – Main Hall ("Somewhere There Creative Music Festival" – Show 5), February 22, 2015.

Peripheral Vision - Mutual Humiliation Society

The festival closed out with an outing from this quartet, offering a solid dose of forward-looking jazz. Michael Herring (double bass) and Don Scott (guitar) provided alternating compositions, several of which were newer than their most recent album. Trevor Hogg (tenor sax) and Nick Fraser (drums) rounded out the lineup. The group can be found monthly at the Tranzac on the first Tuesday of every month.

Recording: Arnd Jurgensen and Friends

Artist: Arnd Jurgensen and Friends

Songs: [set 1 excerpt] + [set 2 excerpt]

Recorded at The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge), November 12, 2014.

Arnd Jurgensen and Friends - [set 1 excerpt]

Arnd Jurgensen and Friends - [set 2 excerpt]

Guitarist Arnd Jurgensen had the booking for this early timeslot in the Southern Cross, though word was the set was going to be a group backing the mercurial Mary Margaret O'Hara. She didn't make the gig, but this was still a more-than-adequately-interesting combo to hang out and listen to, with Jurgensen joined by Aidan Closs (percussion, piano), Michael Herring (double bass), Bob Vespaziani (wavedrum), and the wonderful Jeff Burke (bassoon and theremin). What was originally going to be a duo followed by a larger group was combined into two sets of improvised music by the quintet, touching on a range of vibes, from the first set's abstract space blues heard in the first extract to the second set's spontaneous ballad heard in the second.

[You can check out Jurgensen, quite possibly with a different mix of collaborators, in his next Tranzac appearance, Wednesday January 15th in the early slot.]