Recording: Swanherds

Artist: Swanherds

Song: unknown^*

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Karen Ng presents), June 25, 2024.

Swanherds - unknown

The last time rebecca bruton was in these parts was to record with her Swanherds band, which also resulted in a solo show. This visit brought with it a full group performance, pulling in vocalists Zoë Alexis-Abrams and Felicity Williams, pianist Ryan Driver, percussionist D. Alex Meeks, guitarist Kurt Newman, and double bassist Pete Johnston. There was, of course, whistling from several of those conspirators as they went on some dreamy journeys down dusty Albertan backroads and headed for stranger destinations.

You can check out some more from this set over on youtube:

^* Does anyone know the title to this one? Please leave a comment!

Recording: Swanherds

Artist: Swanherds

Song: Somewhere on an Unnamed Mining Road Near Kaslo

Recorded at 918 Bathurst (The Sun Room), January 23, 2024.

Swanherds - Somewhere on an Unnamed Mining Road Near Kaslo

Some things take longer than expected. Four years (to the day!) after debuting her Swanherds band — a show that was intended to be the lead-up to the group recording together — rebecca bruton was back in the city from out West to finally undertake the project, with this solo performance a pleasant byproduct. Filtering and refracting country music tropes into something more personal, the songs explored mountain and prairie terrains, trees and birds. Keep an eye out for the group recordings to eventually make their way out into the world.

You can check out the full set over on youtube:

Pause and Reconsider: Jason Doell

While live music is on pause, I've asked some friends of MFS to dig through the archives and put together a playlist of some things I've posted that have registered with them in one way or another — contextualizing blurbs preferred but not required. Expect to see a variety of different takes and approaches as the playlists get posted — and hopefully we'll all be reminded of some cool things that have happened in the past. This list comes from don't-call-him-a-composer Jason Doell.

---

Here is a broad sampling of what I believe to be the boundless and genre defiant "Toronto Croon" (as captured by Joe). Not all of the voices heard in this playlist live here still, but all have done so in the past, and all have adopted or adapted the Toronto croon in their own special way.

S W A N H E R D S - The Turning Larch

Marker Starling - Author

L CON - Oh How Love

Eric Chenaux - Social Living

ZOË - The Rock

Bernice - Talking About Her

Thom Gill + Musica Reflecta - Consider Me Gone

The Ryan Driver Sextet - Two Sleepy People

Recording: S W A N H E R D S

Artist: S W A N H E R D S

Songs: Swanherds + The Turning Larch

Recorded at the Canadian Music Centre (CMC/Riparian Acoustics presents), January 23, 2020.

S W A N H E R D S - Swanherds

S W A N H E R D S - The Turning Larch

This set would have been worth seeing based just on the familiar local faces on stage, including Laura Swankey, Zoë Alexis-Abrams, Ryan Driver, D. Alex Meeks and Pete Johnston — maybe especially so as all were being credited with "whistling" alongside their usual instruments. But all expectations were detourned by the presence of Rebecca Bruton, who had assembled this group as the space-built-in unit S W A N H E R D S. The Banff-based Bruton is a composer, noise-maker and song-singer — all of which were hinted at here, though this set hewed toward the latter. Positing an avant-garde tradition on the same country path k.d. lang once trod down, the songs took in the birds, trees and horses observed in her local environment, brought to life with that aforementioned whistling, as well as singing saws and some occasional yodels.

[This season of CMC Presents concerts will be concluding at the Burdock on Thursday, March 5th with a special co-presentation with the Women From Space Festival featuring Elisa Thorn, Claire Yunjin Lee, Amy Brandon, and Susan Alcorn.]