Recording: Betty Burke

Artist: Betty Burke

Song: River of Need

Recorded at Holy Oak Café (Wavelength 519), May 15, 2011.

Betty Burke - River of Need

My notes for this set can be found here.

Gig: Wavelength 519

Wavelength 519: Idus Maia (feat. Betty Burke / Hobson's Choice)

Holy Oak Café. Sunday May 15, 2011.

It was a rainy night that felt more like xmas in Vancouver than mid-may in T.O. That made it feel all the more cozy inside Holy Oak Café, where the window normally overlooking the street was covered by a sheet for General Chaos' swirling projections. And it seemed like I wasn't the only one casting my mind westward, as host Doc Pickles — filled with post-election malaise — was in a mood to fulminate on Canadian history, settling in somewhere around the junction of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers. With one of the scheduled bands cancelling at the last minute, there was some extra time to kill, which was filled in a lengthy discourse on Louis Riel, Bloody Saturday and "grid thinking": "the reason it's flooding — it has nothing to do with bad planning. It's like bad ideological memories. [...] Yes, Ladies and Gentlemen, Louis Riel isn't dead, he's just part of the memory that doesn't end yet."¹

All of which was a pretty good lead-in to Betty Burke, a band with its own share of true stories and whispered secret history lessons. Leading off with the jaunty trouble-with-capitalism ground-level reportage of "New Job", vocalist Maggie MacDonald led the band through a non-stop ride down the Trans-Canada, with a special radio that only picks up broadcasts from the nearby mythical past.

The venue's low-tech sound system was getting some on-the-fly adjustments while the band got going, with musical confederate Magali Meagher hopping up to make the adjustments. In performance, Betty Burke's beatbox folksongs bring goofy joyousness into the service of truth, and when, for example, the band managed to break each other up during "When the Wind Blows" it felt like an enhancement, not a flaw.

Waving to some passers-by peering in through the venue's front door, there was also the usual amount of improvised interactivity that MacDonald brings to a gig, this time out including queef jokes (including some on-the-fly lyrical rewrites to "Hazel Eyes"). In theory, every song begins when the new drum track is selected on the ipod, but there's always a discursive overlap, with the bandmembers commenting on the last song's performance and MacDonald informing the audience of the next song's true story status.

But under that, there's a whole bunch of good songs as well as the musical flexibility to adjust on the fly. Guitarist Jo Snyder is often the one holding things together, keeping MacDonald's lyrical train on the rails as well as adding some excellent backing vox for "River of Need". And after slowing down for a brief seance, the set went out with a rambunctious "El Dorado", Sheila Sampath channelling her inner John Paul Jones on the keybs.

The band's Dirty Mouth of The St Lawrence River EP shows off their musical and songwriting strengths (you should get yourself a copy!) but live, they never step into the same river twice, and all the minor indeterminacies make for a fun time.²

Listen to a track from this set here.

I didn't really know anything about Hobson's Choice, but I recognized a couple of the folks that were in the band, first and foremost including Felicity Williams, who has one of the most beautiful voices in town. I also recognized Michael Davidson on vibes — his presence, plus Rebecca Hennessy on trumpet, implied that this would be a textured sort of music, even if the only other instrumentation was Harley Card's acoustic guitar. And indeed, as they began with "Oh Beauty", there was a spare loveliness to the sound. It'd be conceptually easy to fit this into the new wave of soft rock alongside, say, THOMAS, with whom Williams also sings, though Hobson's Choice brings more of a jazzy edge to it — enough so that Joni came to mind in a few spots.

Card sang lead on some of the material and was certainly a capable vocalist, but less distinctive than Williams' ethereal tone, which is so lovely that it's very expressive even when she's singing wordless phrases. But the vocal arrangements, including Hennessy's harmonies, were top notch. Even with an album and a couple EP's under their belt³, the band was working on new material, including "Watcher", a song about the Gulf oil spill ("is this the cost of more?").

Beautiful music, perfect for a candlelit café. Kudos to Wavelength for bringing a show into into a space that always has a good atmosphere — in fact, it's always worth checking out what's coming up at Holy Oak.

Listen to a track from this set here.

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¹ Louis Riel surrendered on a May 15th, and the murderous force of the police fell upon the assembled citizens of Winnipeg on a different May 15th, making the "Ides of May" a unique signifier in the annals of resistance to the status quo in Canada.

² There's no word of any upcoming activity from the Betty Burke camp, but Maggie MacDonald will be examining that dirty 'ol river from another perspective when her musical play Paper Laced with Gold debuts at Harbourfront's Hatch Festival on April 28, 2012.

³ The band is giving away one of those EP's on their website.

Recording: Betty Burke

Artist: Betty Burke

Song: Giver and Taker

Recorded at Holy Oak Café, February 25, 2011.

Betty Burke - Giver and Taker

My notes from this set can be found here.

Gig: Betty Burke

Betty Burke

Holy Oak Café. Friday, February 25, 2011.

I hustled over to the Holy Oak from my last show, arriving to find the cozy room filled in to the brim. Openers Evening Hymns, playing in their trio format, were well into their set as I came through the door. And given the venue's layout — with the bands playing at the front of the room, right up against the window overlooking Bloor Street and beside the front door &mdash anyone entering late will find themselves right beside the band. The room was quite packed — I don't think at any point there was enough of a clearing for me to see all the way to the bar in the back — but not wanting to be one of those people who show up last yet presume they deserve the best view, I managed to I squeeze back to try and find enough room to even stand and watch the last song-and-a-half of the set.

During the switchover as people headed outside or to the bar, I scammed a spot up front for the main attraction, which was the celebration of Blocks' release of The Dirty Mouth of The St Lawrence River. Betty Burke is the band, not a performer, and though the lineup has settled after some early variations (about which more below) the central character is vocalist Maggie MacDonald.

When she called the room to order (calling to friends at the back of the room to have someone at the bar turn the background music down) she announced that the night's performance would come with a chronological setlist, showing the evolution of the band from its origins, when she "wanted to learn to write in a new way", leading to her partnership with Holly Andruchuk. Thus that pair led off with the rootsy "Suitcase", including a lovely harmony vocal from Andruchuk, who was accompanying on her electric guitar.

As MacDonald took a seat for a song, Andruchuk took lead vocals on "You Can't Wear Suede in the Rain", backed by original bandmembers Shaun Brodie and Jon Hynes — both of whom served in The Hidden Cameras' mild-mannered army alongside MacDonald. This was a chance to observe what she wanted to learn from Andruchuk, both vocally and in the songwriting approach. For someone that has been described (and even self-described) as more of a vocal stylist than a singer, MacDonald (on the song's recorded version¹) moves into her most accomplished and nuanced terrain, and the aching core of it was here on stage in Andruchuk's performance.

That led into the "contemporary" phase of the band as the musicians switched off and the current trio (with Sheila Sampath and Jo Snyder) took over. "All the stories we deal in are one hundred per cent true," MacDonald reminded the crowd as she slipped into her emcee role. I won't even attempt to explain the ongoing references to the time-travelling Dr. Who-vian "guitardis", but it was all part of a mini-narrative used to string the songs together.

With a musical backdrop of keybs, acoustic guit and a steady drumloop (courtesy of an ipod) as the setting for MacDonald's Mark E. Smith-like slurring drawl, "New Job" is indicative of where the band's sound has headed, even if it came from that first burst of compositions that came before the trio alignment. It was followed by a series of newer songs that originated with this lineup.² "Hazel Eyes", while arguably not the strongest of the pack, was described as the embodiment of the Michael Jackson/Rolling Stones hybrid sound that MacDonald was looking for, while "Giver and Taker", is an extension of "Suede"'s balladic approach. Adding variety, Sampath took lead vocals on "You Can't Stay Young", backed with disco-y beats.

Listen to a song in the band's trio format here.

For the show's final phase, everyone who played on the recording came back up to play on EP's remaining three songs. This raucous "expandaband" brought a swaggering roundhouse feel to "River of Need" and "Brink of Extinction", the latter even encompassing some nifty guitar licks from Hynes.

The rousing conclusion to the night was a triumphant version of "El Dorado" — the song's intro groove stretched out for a couple minutes as MacDonald introduced the band and hinted at the family relationship to true story behind the song, with Snyder shouting out the count-in a couple times to nudge things along, eventually propelling itself with some unholy combination of a lurch and a swagger.

Listen to a song from the "big band" portion of the show here.

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¹ The band also made this fab music video for the song.

² A recent dispatch from the band mentions that they're doing some more recording, so some of these should be coming to light soon. One might guess that they might emerge as a follow-up EP, a format that MacDonald seems to relish — I stand to be corrected here, but although she has released music with several bands, none have released a full-length album.

Recording: Betty Burke

Artist: Betty Burke

Song: El Dorado

Recorded at Holy Oak Café, February 25, 2011.

Betty Burke - El Dorado

Full review to follow. My notes for this set can now be found here. This might properly be called "The Betty Burke Big Band" as six members past and present were crammed into the small space at the front of the room and making a righteous racket. The band's EP Dirty Mouth of The St Lawrence River is now available, so do get yourself a copy!

Gig: Betty Burke

Betty Burke (The Phonemes / Kathleen Phillips)

The Imperial Pub Backroom. Thursday, October 21, 2010.

Out on a Thursday night to the cozy back room of the Imperial Pub on Dundas for a show put on by the good folks at 50 River. The series is the brainchild of musician/promoter Holly Andruchuk, who can be found greeting patrons at the door with a bright smile and saying, "thanks for supporting live music!" There's a genuine charm in the whole presentation, starting with the idea that rather than just giving the musicians a stage to play on, there's a curated experience, including knowlegable write-ups that you can check out to acquaint yourself with the musicians before coming down. In the sliver of the room, the tables are topped with tall candles stuck in empty liquor bottles as the occasional rumble of conversation from the regulars at the front bar occasionally wafts through the air.

Besides the two bands on this night, each set was preceded by some comedy from Kathleen Phillips, delivering her deadpan stylings in storytelling mode, the first set discussing the shortcomings of cats (the "nihilist unemployed poets" of the pet world) in her dry drawl. Entertaining stuff, not always taking things to the obvious destination.

That applies, too, to The Phonemes, centred around the always-joyful Magali Meagher with frequent co-conspirators Stephanie Markowitz and John Tielli (plus a nimble guitarist whose name I didn't catch). I hadn't seen 'em for almost a year, so it was interesting to see how some of the newer material, now feeling a little more lived in, has gotten fleshed out. "Vanishing Point" is as catchy and appealing as anything Meagher has penned while "Paper Planes" (not, um, to be confused with the M.I.A. song) dances and drifts like its namesake. Meagher mostly played guitar, but also moved over to the piano for one number.

And then for a special treat, the band was joined by Maggie MacDonald for a bilingual duet on the sprightly yé-yé tune "Cet air-là", most famously performed by France Gall. MacDonald sang in English in her own translation while Meagher sang the original French, their differing voices (brash¹ and gentle, respectively) contrasting as much as the languages they were singing — but it all worked.

That would be the start of a series of guest stars that continued with Bobby Wiseman adding some piano to "Sunday Morning" and the members of Betty Burke adding percussion on "Steeples and People". Gentleman Reg, celebrating his birthday in a glittering pair of heels, came up for a sprightly version of "Pain Perdu". The Phonemes' off-kilter pop is always a good time and a chance for Meagher to give her friends something to sing about.

Listen to a track from this set here.

After another quick set from Kathleen Phillips (this time staying in grandmotherly character to tell a story about a weather-predicting dog) the show was switched over to an "AM Radio from a parallel dimension". That's the natural territory for Betty Burke, tellers of true stories. There had been some changes in the BB camp since I saw them last, with mainstay Maggie MacDonald now joined by Jo Snyder (guit) and Sheila Sampath (bass, keyboard). There were still echoes of the rootsy sound that Holly Andruchuk had provided while active in the band, but with an ipod providing drum machine beats the sound veered more towards new wave.² MacDonald was dressed for that sound, too, rocking a Patti Smith look in a blazer and skinny tie.

The band is undoubtedly MacDonald's show, but there's room for her bandmates — one song, for example, featured Sampath's lead vox. And in the same community spirit as the Phonemes set, there was a series of friends and collaborators joining the band on stage. Sarianna Mileski sang lead vox on "The Prince" and there was another appearance from Gentleman Reg for a duet ("I can make you come, but I can't make you stay") which was followed by cake, everyone in the room joining in on "Happy Birthday". And besides those guests, there was also a visit from MacDonald's sunglasses-wearing alter ego Loni Lalonde. "I had to get rid of Maggie... she had too much impulse control," said Lalonde, a channelling of MacDonald's Cornwall days.

The stage was jammed full of people as the band closed it out with "El Dorado". Spirited throughout, the set had a celebratory vibe. Good fun — a band you should definitely check out.³

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¹ "I'm not a singer," Maggie commented at the outset, "but I am verbose."

² Before one song, MacDonald gave praise to The Jesus and Mary Chain for their seminal historical influence in their use of drum machines, though interestingly the song that accompanied that comment owed at least as much to "Rivers of Babylon".

³ And, in fact, you have an excellent chance to do just that this Friday (February 25, 2010) at Holy Oak Cafe, where Betty Burke will be celebrating the release of their first EP. As a bonus, Evening Hymns are playing too.