Jill Barber: Live

Tour 11 Oct Chester Playhouse - Chester, NS 12 Oct Astor Theatre - Liverpool, NS 13 Oct Rebecca Cohn Audit. - Halifax, NS 14 Oct Fred. Playhouse - Fredericton, NB 16 Oct Capitol Theatre - Moncton, NB 17 Oct Festival Theatre - Wolfville, NS 18 Oct Confed. Center, Charlottetown, PEI 19 Oct Holy Heart of Mary - St John's, NFLD 22 Feb Rebecca Cohn - Halifax, NS Albums For All Time [2006] Oh Heart [2004]

Being somebody who is prone to unapologetic bouts of sentimentality, I recently attended two performances by the award winning Canadian singer, Jill Barber. She first came to my attention in 2006 when she was recommended to me by a former lover. Unfortunately, her presence in my iTunes library was short lived as she was removed in the Great Broken Hearted Purge of the same year. While I do not regret deleting the likes of Bush, Pearl Jam and other bands that had crept into my collection due to love, it was with a reluctant soul I erased a few folks and Jill was amongst their number.

Fast forward to Summer Sundae 2007... While traveling down memory lane, exorcising many ghosts along the way, I noticed her name in the lineup of The Musician Stage.

Aside from ticking all three boxes for the perfect woman; the voice of a Siren, the looks of Venus and, of course, she is Canadian. I wanted to know if my old heart could withstand seeing her performance. Would memories of my old love flood back? Am I still broken hearted?

Love songs and horoscopes have a few things in common. If you are looking for answers then you'll find them in both. But be warned; most love songs either never really apply to anybody but the person they were intended for or, like horoscopes, are so general that any weak minded fool could be satisfied with the answer on offer. Unlike horoscopes, love songs are real. Listening to the love songs of Ms Barber, I found enough solidarity to trigger my softer side...

...If I wanted to plunge into the depths of corny review writing (if I haven't already), I would at this point claim that her songs touched my soul and re-awoke my spirit to the joys of love. But while I am sentiMENTAL, I am not a wet and soppy teenage poet. So instead, I will tell you that while listening to her, I had a manly moment, drank a beer and felt compelled to watch a sporting event like Ice Hockey. She has a love song involving Ice Hockey. Unlike a lot of singer-songwriters who touch on love, I managed to find a lot of reality in her songs. For instance, A 7th Minor brought back memories of a girl singing campfire songs to me as we walked from the train station, my hatred of the time zones and the ocean...and how all the songs in the world sometimes cannot mend a heart that is shattered...

Measures & Scales

Jill Barber

A week later I caught another one of her performances at the Green Man Cafe. I turned down the chance to see Seasick Steve and Gruff Rhys who were playing at the same time. I do not regret it.

To demonstrate the impact of her voice, the Green Man Cafe stage was almost deserted when she began and near full by the time she had finished. Songs like Measures & Scales and A 7th Minor converted simple folks drinking at the bar into fans.

I had a little grin on my face and a tear in my eye when she covered Cinnamon Hearts by Matthew Barber, her equally as talented older brother. I remember sharing Cinnamon Hearts one snowy day in Saskatoon. She played the full set with a can of beer by her side and a smile on her face. Hopefully, if she returns to the Green Man next year, they will give her a big stage!

Her UK tour was brief. Like a whirlwind romance, it was over almost as soon as it had started. However, I discovered she supported Tunng as part of the Twisted Folk Tour in 2006 so I am hopefully she will return to the UK and Europe at some point. If you conduct a simple google search, there are plenty of reviews online of her performance on the Twisted Folk tour. To summarise, most of them conclude that her stage presence is "sexy, sweet, seductive and bubbly" before going on to mention that she is bloody good singer and overall musician. Or in the words of Kris Kristofferson, "Jill Barber is a real songwriter... a damn good songwriter."

I am guessing she leaves a trail of love sick fools behind at every gig she plays. While I was not one of those fools, she reminded me of a time I was love in and for that, I am grateful. Am I still broken hearted? Well, this is a music review and I don't really see how answering that would be important.

If you would like to hear more of Jill Barber's music, then I strongly recommend checking out her website as her full album and EP are streamed. She really is one of the shining star of the Canadian music scene.
 

 September 3, 2007 03:48 AM  Ryan my posts www.jillbarber.com