Recording: Isla Craig

Artist: Isla Craig

Song: Messages

Recorded at The Great Hall ("Long Winter: Year 2, Volume 3"), January 10, 2013.

Isla Craig - Messages

Full review to follow. With jam-packed rooms and three stages going at once at a few points, there's just no way you can see everything at a Long Winter any more. You just have to sorta dive in and see where the current takes you.

Celebrating having a song released on the free 7" being handed out at the gig, Isla Craig put together something of a special lineup for the night. Lately she's been performing with her Soul Sisters Supreme (Ivy Mairi, Tamara Lindeman, Daniela Gesundheit, Felicity Williams), singing unaccompanied to highlight the beautiful mystery of their combined voices — but this night also saw a backing band of old friends and collaborators (Colin Fisher, Brandon Valdivia, Scott Peterson and Chris Sandes) to add some extra oomph to the sound. It was a successful experiment and no surprise that these musicians have an easy chemistry from frequently playing together (in Prince Enoki's Insect Orchestra, New Civilization and many other combinations and permutations), although there was also the sense that if the band had a few more gigs together, they'd really gel into something special. That doesn't seem to be in the cards for the moment — Craig has announced a winter break from performing to focus on writing new material for awhile — but don't rule out the possibility of seeing this super-combo on stage again.

Recording: Soul Sisters Supreme Redux 2.0

Artist: Soul Sisters Supreme Redux 2.0

Song: Flesh Failures/Let the Sunshine In [from the musical "Hair"]

Recorded at St. Andrew by-the-Lake Anglican Church ("Poor Pilgrim 6"), July 21, 2013.

Soul Sisters Supreme Redux 2.0 - Flesh Failures/Let the Sunshine In

Full review to follow. Once again, Poor Pilgrim was an excellent day-long adventure, with perfect weather and beautiful music. Many thanks to Matt Cully, who once again put together a summer highlight. You can see some more photos from the day on the MFS facebook page.

With Robin Dann taking the place of Daniela Gesundheit, we might properly refer to this as v 2.1 of Isla Craig's a capella project. In this lovely island chapel, no microphones were needed to send these five voices skyward — pure, natural beauty.

Recording: Soul Sisters Supreme Redux 2.0

Artist: Soul Sisters Supreme Redux 2.0

Song: Hares on the Mountain [trad. arr. Shirley Collins]

Recorded at The Music Gallery ("Weird Canada Showcase" a.k.a. Wyrd IV), May 11, 2013.

Soul Sisters Supreme Redux 2.0 - Hares on the Mountain

Full review to follow. After an afternoon listening salon devoted to digging through some of the albums the Music Gallery released on its record label, Weird Canada showed its "genre agnosticism" in practice with a night featuring three rather different acts. Starting the night, Isla Craig's superstar a capella quintet dazzled as much as they did last time I saw 'em at their tape release. With everyone having various projects on the go, it's hard to get everyone together too often, so it's a real event when it happens. Broadening their collaborative scope, there were some new songs in here as well — Daniela Gesundheit led off with a Jewish wedding invocation, and Ivy Mairi presented this folk song.

Bonus! Flipzoso used my audio for this video he shot for "Messenger".

Recording: Isla Craig

Artist: Isla Craig

Songs: Flower + The City

Recorded at Holy Oak Café, November 18, 2012.

Isla Craig - Flower

Isla Craig - The City

Full review to follow. Y'know — I get it. There are people who need to get away from this city to discover out what they're doing. There are some people who find it alienating or just too much — this city will starve you. But this city sustains me. It's shown me a helluva lot of beauty and it's made me who I am — when you're lucky, this city will feed you.

Isla Craig is one of my local music heroes and she knows about the city. An enthusiastic collaborator, it's actually surprising that her new tape (issued by Totally Disconnected) is actually only the second release to bear her own name. It's important that such a team player gets some individual recognition.

That said of course, this is also a collaboration, with four singularly amazing talents — dubbed "Soul Sisters Supreme Redux Version 2.0" — joining Craig, and for most of the night, their combined voices were more than enough to mesmerize and delight. To have any one of these women in our midst would enrich us; to have all five is a truly amazing.

With so many projects on the go, it's no small effort to get them all in a room together, but word on the street is that we can anticipate something really special from this grouping in the new year. More details when that gets confirmed, but in the meantime, grab the tape (or the digital version) and soak in the vibes.