Posts: 2,367
Threads: 143
Joined: Jul 2002
Reputation:
0
Brilliant point, DW. I can't say I have ever liked more than a handful of contemporary artists (I'm all about the 1940s-70s) but all of the ones I've ever really gotten excited about having been "under the radar", and most of them I discovered by brilliant accidents.
Kate Fenner (who I'd heard on CBC Radio One before she toured with the Hip), the Drive By Truckers, Ron Sexsmith, the Sadies, Kathleen Edwards, Charlie A'Court, Morgan Davis, Cat Power, Neko Case (it seems we still have incredibly similar taste in music!)...all brilliant artists who I found outside the mainstream.
I still maintain the best way to find revelatory new music is to keep your ear to the ground looking for "roots" bars. We have a couple of pubs here in town that play really good organic blues/folk and roots music...it's how I first heard the Sadies, Morgan Davis, Charlie A'Court...LIVE is the only way to go.
Posts: 2,367
Threads: 143
Joined: Jul 2002
Reputation:
0
I have the Bourbons' "Superior Cackling Hen", and it's far and away my favourite pop album. It folk, jazz and funk sensibilities keeep me awake and entertained on the night shift. I've been craving more of their material ever since but it's all too obscure. I even asked Kate about it and she shrugged.
Posts: 2,367
Threads: 143
Joined: Jul 2002
Reputation:
0
Wow, I have been wanting to get that for so long (I've seen them thrice live and been really impressed each time), but I was told it was out of stock...and not likely to be reprinted. I haven't even heard it. A friend of mine in BC has it and, though he'd never offer to copy it for me, and I'd never accept it if he did, at least I'll get to hear it when I see him on my westward pilgrimage later this year.
Have you heard C&K's latest EP? It was released at the end of last year and I haven't gottena round to picking it up yet.
Posts: 2,367
Threads: 143
Joined: Jul 2002
Reputation:
0
YES!!! I'm not one for all-caps mode, but you MUST pursue Kate's solo album! It's absolutely fantastic, couldn't believe it. The experience of seeing and hearing Kate was not complete until this album pulled it all together. No overstatement, it is as good or better than anything C&K have ever done.
Actually, I have a cool story about it - a few weeks before it was to be officially released, I saw Kate in Halifax and before the show I was chatting when her and eventually I asked very excitedly, "I heard you have a solo album coming out! When can I pick it up?" and without a word she got up, went over to one of her road cases, and brought me back one. I reached for my wallet and in a very cool movie-scene kind of way, she took a drag of her cigarette and said "You've got better things to spend your money on." I said, "But isn't this how you make your living?!" and she said, "There's no way I could make a living off that. You paid for the show, that's how I make my living. I'll probably still have a basket of these for people to take for free at my funeral," or something like that. Very cool of her, just giving it to me.
But back to the album...I absolutely LOVE half a dozen songs off it...I mean these are songs I tell people all the time, "You've gotta hear this!" Linden Trees is probably the single best song I've ever heard from an independent singer/songwriter I like. And Hook and Ladder, In Your Good Name...there's plenty of gold in them thar hills. Buy it. Buy it now!
Posts: 6,675
Threads: 359
Joined: Mar 2004
Reputation:
0
That's a great story! I have a similar one, but unfortunately I didn't get any free CDs out of it. When I lived in Ottawa my friends and I used to go see shows at this little bar/cafe in Wakefield, Quebec called the Black Sheep. We witnessed so many good shows there: Ron Sexsmith, a solo acoustic show by Lowest of the Low frontman Ron Hawkins (incredible), and of course, Chris Brown & Kate Fenner who put on one of the best bar shows I've ever seen. The Black Sheep is super tiny, and my friends and I were able to snag a table right in front of the stage. It was brilliant. After the show I chatted with both of them for a good 20 minutes or so. They're fantastic people. It's always fun when you get to meet your favorite musicians and they end up being just as cool and down to earth as you imagined. The Hip are like that too. You could call them the anti-rock stars.
Posts: 2,144
Threads: 97
Joined: Jun 2003
Reputation:
0
Do either of you have Chris and Kate's version of Scared? A Henhouser (or was it a Hipbaser?) copied part of a live show of theirs for me that had Scared on it. Amazing rendition in a very stripped down sense. I will defenitely have to check out Kate's solo album and I highly recommend the Great Lakes Bootleg, if only for the amazing versions of Snow and Time Murder Ballad.
Posts: 2,367
Threads: 143
Joined: Jul 2002
Reputation:
0
You guys are lucky to have GLB! It's ben #1 on my list of must-haves for a year now.
I didn't know there were any Chris and Kate concert bootlegs! VLH, do you remember who sent it to you? I've never heard their version of Scared, and I've never heard a concert recording! If you have or know anyone with any bootlegs, I would really appreciate the connection!
