After a long day of moving into my new apartment, my parents and I decided to drive over to the Al Whittle Theatre in Wolfville to check out Tim Chaisson & Morning Fold, who was headlining the Deep Roots Emerging Artists' showcase. Two of the four finalists played that evening: Liz Furniss and Jesse Potter. I was disappointed to see a complete lack in audience that evening, but there isn't much one can do about it. Liz was the first to take the stage. She started her set with Blind Melon's "No Rain", to which she introduced very nervously. The chords from the guitar (which was a beautiful electro/acoustic) were quite basic, and I had assumed the song would be quite bland, but once her vocals began I was completely blown away by her projection and tone. The 14 year old then proceeded to impress me more when she performed an original song that she titled "Spider Alley". Her use of minor chords made it sound fantastic and her lyrics were well-written. Overall, her set was very well done, with two covers and two original songs, but I really wish she would have used strictly originals. The covers just didn't do this girl justice!
Next came Jesse. I was honestly a little bit bothered by him when Debbie introduced him and warned us that he was sick and may not be able to perform at a maximum level. When he came on, he then proceeded to tell us about his illness, and that just left a bad taste in my mouth. He played a song by an artist he taught himself to play guitar from, and it went very well. If he hadn't mentioned he was sick, I wouldn't have noticed. He was performing quite well, though a little awkward, until at the end of the song when he whispered "I'm sorry my guitar is out of tune" into the microphone. After attempting for all of one minute to tune his one string (which, by the way, nobody noticed until it was pointed out), he skipped the two songs he was going to play on that and then went onto another guitar (which was gorgeous by the way) where he played an instrumental called "Funktified". He did beyond amazing on this song, it was insane to watch him play the way he did and I thoroughly enjoyed it. His style was totally different from Liz's; he didn't do any strumming at all, while Liz's tunes involved doing just that. All in all, 17 year old Jesse is a talented musician, but he really needs to work on his attitude if he's going to make it very far in the music business.
After a 15 minute intermission, we were all ready for Tim Chaisson and Morning Fold! They put on an acoustic performance that night, which would only be my second one I'd have seen, and it was definitely a treat. It would be the first time my parents would have ever seen the boys play, let alone acoustically, so it was great allowing them to experience something outside of their usual set (they usually play a full rock set). They started their set out with "Lay Low" the first track of their current album "Broken Hearted Beat". It was very well played and you could sense the connection of the band. Their sound just took in the audience, and throughout the whole set, Tim was very interactive with everyone. He was bantering back and forth, trying to get some conversation going (my parents were excited and surprised to have him say "Oh, there are a few from Cape Breton!" when he asked where everyone was from, though they only met once). Amongst the songs Tim wrote from the album and his previous albums, the band also played some traditional fiddle and piano tunes, which were so very well executed. The audience was clapping and carrying on, which is always a wonderful vibe during a live performance. Tim Chaisson and Morning Fold's performance got them an encore, which was entertaining to listen to, especially after a big story about a previous performance where they thought they had an encore but were very wrong (it made me chuckle!). All in all, you could tell these guys loved playing and really tried to include the audience in their passion! If there was anything bad to say about this performance, it would be that more eye contact with the crowd would be appreciated, though I'm aware the lights probably made it near impossible to do! (For more info, check out http://www.timchaisson.com/)
A great show had by all in the long run of it all, and be sure to head back over to the Al Whittle Theatre on September 10th to see the other two emerging artists, Julie Aube and The Trips, to be accompanied by headliner Ian Sherwood. Free will donation at the door, and be sure to grab a latte at the Just Us! Cafe on your way in. For more information on the Deep Roots Co-op visit http://www.deeprootsmusic.ca/ or for information on Ian Sherwood check out http://www.iansherwood.com/.
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