A fine folk show­case pro­vided by the good folks at The Holy Oak was just what I was look­ing for on a recent Tues­day night. Though I’ve caught The Weather Sta­tion many times since the release of her sopho­more album All Of It Was Mine (buy it/it’s incred­i­ble), this was the first time I’d seen her play com­pletely unac­com­pa­nied in quite some time. The inti­mate show gave her the chance to show­case some brand new mate­r­ial, posted below. Nick Fer­rio, on the oth­er­hand, I hadn’t seen play in years, going back to my Oshawa-days. He’d swing by The Vel­vet Elvis every few months with one group or another — The Burn­ing Hell, Weird Weather, The Bloody Mir­a­cles — or solo, but that was ages ago and I was super excited to get a chance to see what he’s up to right now. He’s got a shit-hot back­ing band now and a whole stack of soon to be clas­sic songs, includ­ing “Search­ing For a Way,” posted right up top.

Nick men­tioned onstage that he’s just returned from Welland where he put some songs to tape with lil’ Ian Romano. Look­ing for­ward to that. In the mean­time, him and his band are attempt­ing to put out an EP each month in 2012 themed around dif­fer­ent feel­ings. January’s EP was fit­tingly titled Depres­sion.

Tags: Nick Ferrio, The Holy Oak, The Weather Station · Leave a comment

After being away from the city for six weeks, it felt really good to be back at The Tran­zac for this spe­cial trib­ute night to the great Michael Hur­ley. I’ve really only heard his 2009 album Ida Con Snock and the odd tune here or there, but with a lineup that included long-time favourites like Bry Webb, Evening Hymns, and The Weather Sta­tion, as well as folks I’ve wanted to see play for a while such as Gabe Levine (singing Tia Marie in the video above) and Lisa Bozikovic, I made sure to mark the night down as a “can’t miss event” on my Google Calendar.

Con­tinue reading →

Tags: Evening Hymns, Gave Levine, Harbourcoats, Lisa Bozikovic, Matt Dunn, Sandro Perri, Steamboat, The Weather Station, Tradition, Tranzac · 1 Comment