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Earth
Day and Earth week 2002 was made a little more relevant and special
in
Toronto by the Earth Day Canada Benefit concert organized by Brian
Gladstone
at the Tranzac club on April 23rd. Brian is to be commended for
initiating
and implementing his plans to benefit Earth Day Canada and for
all
the hard work and time he put into organizing this well-run, big
event.
Earth Day Canada assists in educating the public about
environmental
issues and has a large presence in our schools, teaching
children
to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle, to plant trees and to look after
our
Mother Earth.
This
theme of celebrating and protecting our Earth was reflected in many
of
the performer's songs, although the tendency, at least in the first
half
of the concert, was to sing the praises of our history, of past lives
-
of the treasure of our land and the people who came before us.
Brian
hosted the evening introducing each performer with their short
self-penned
bio; each performer's repertoire varied from 3-5 songs. Colin
Puffer
provided the sound and although not initially so, I found the sound
to
be too loud for the size of the room. However, he did an admirable job
considering
how many switches and set ups he had throughout the evening.
The
evening's proceedings began at 7pm with a performance by Brian's
brother, HOWARD GLADSTONE
(guitar, vocals), whose original material
included
a tribute to a lake with it's rejuvenating properties. His lovely
song
"Healing Hands" states "the world needs more healing
hands". How
true!
LINDA
SASLOVE (guitar, vocals) accompanied
by her cousin DAVID SASLOVE
on guitar, followed with a strong voice singing "I'll be big and
strong/leaving
and loving/waiting and wanting you" in "The Last Goodbye".
LYNN
HARRISON'S powerful song writing
skills shone in the beautiful "Tall
Trees"
and "Smooth Stones" from her Lynoleum CD. Lynn is a relatively
new
performer
in the Ontario folk community and gives a very polished and
professional
performance.
DANNY
BAKAN, accompanied by CHRIS
McKOOL on fiddle, played a new, very
heartfelt and moving song which is a thought-provoking testimony to the
horrific
events of Sept. 11th -"when the walls of the tower came tumbling
down,
no-one knew what to say/I crossed that river of Jordan and tried to
find
some common ground/we are one people of many cultures/and a common
tongue
might still be found." His passion for music emanated from
"Dance".
CHRIS
McKOOL got everyone participating in a kids' song called "When
You're
a Tree".
NORM
HACKING with JEREMY
WOODLAND, MICHAEL
LADEROUTE and MICHAEL
KATZ entertained us with a very
clever and funny song called "Cats Everywhere". Closing his set,
he led us all in his signature "Shine" - "we'll all shine
together/ in our time together/I'll shine for you and you'll shine for
me."
RODNEY
BROWN (Thunder Bay) sang "Into
The Woods" from his new CD of the same name (produced by Ian Tamblyn)
and sang another beautiful song called "The Forgotten Ones"
(co-written with Liz Harvey-Foulds, Red Rock
presenter).
NONIE
CRETE (Fergus) and EUGENE
REA followed with a song of the past
"Raised
In the Good Old Days" and the heart-rending "Let It Rain"
(which
made
the top ten of the OCFF's Songs From the Heart competition last
year).
An
interesting and unique group SPOOKY
MOON, really livened up the evening
with
an eclectic mix of songs from Spanish to Rock. The powerhouse vocals
of MELANIE CAMPBELL
led the gospel oriented "Slow Train". Other members
are
TERRY GILETZ, HUGH EVANS, SHARON & DAVID LIGHTS
and the White Oak Folk Club's JEREMIAH
BUDNARK.
MADD
SCIENTISTS, the duo of MELWOOD
CUTLERY & JIM
LAYEUX, replete in lab coats, got
some great grooves going with their "Moonlight Hotel",
"Love
Must
Be On Special", "Deep Blue Eyes" and "Jennie's
Farm". They sang about
the
famous "Hagersville Tire Fire", an out-of-control fire that
happened
a
few years ago - it "chokes the land", "threatens every
living
thing"...."you
can blame it on the government, you can blame it on the
Tire
King, it ain't gonna change a thing."
Six
times Canadian Country Guitar Champion, WENDELL
FERGUSON, led us in several
hilarious songs and parodies. "The Barnyard Twostep" describes
the
antics
of someone trying to side-step and dodge all the farmyard cow pies
-
"pretend you're Fred Astaire and step out gingerly". Very
clever!
"Chicken
Bone" is a side splitting chronicle of the hazards of choking on
a
chicken bone, all set to Dylan's famous "Like A Rolling Stone"
tune;
Wendell
'dresses' up for this number with shades and harp & rack.
Wendell's
guitar picking was superb as always and he was joined on stage
by
another outstanding player, TONY
QUARRINGTON, who accompanied Wendell
on his blistering "Fret Atkins" and "Somebody Stole My
Gal" with Brian adding his fine picking style as well.
Tony
stayed on to accompany BRIAN
GLADSTONE in his set with sister BONNIE
GLADSTONE on lovely harmony vocals
and MAUREEN BROWN who provided very tasteful accompaniment on snare drum
and brushes, and shaker. Brian's originals included "I Like Me"
(cool!) - "it's okay to feel good about
yourself,
be the sunshine for everybody else", "Who Killed Betty
Two-Shoes"
and "Flashing Before My Eyes" - "all things are different,
all
things
are the same, all things are relative in time". His picking prowess
really
came out in "Asphalt Cowboy" but the song I liked the best was
"Save
the Wolverine" which he wrote for the Predator's Conservation
Authority
(wolverines being an endangered species).
The
final surprise of the evening was a performance by DAISY
DEBOLT with
eye-catching
guitar work from MARG STOWE and further accompanied by GLEN
SOULIS (on fiddle and pennywhistle), MAUREEN BROWN
and TONY QUARRINGTON.
Daisy's set was hard driving and soulful with "I Got Over You and It
Took Forever" and "Honey-Boy Mom" (co-written with Tony
Quarrington).
All
in all, it was a fine evening of top-notch performances by Canada's
finest!
