Thursday, March 23, 2006
Heather Nova, Cabot Hall 22.3.06
Heather Nova is one of my favourite artists who is a 'must-see' whenever she plays locally. Her music involves sudden changes of volume, her voice as its own instrument and moments when you can get totally lost. Unfortunately in recent times she hasn't really hit the heights of the period 1995-99. There are a number of reasons, her celloist Nadia hurt her arm couldn't play a full set anymore and wasn't replaced, and Heather's more recent studio albums have been patchy with South being sub-standard at best and Storm a good but mellow acoustic album in a change of direction. Her latest album Redbird is back on the right track but still had a few misses on there. This show was to be slightly different though with her band stripped down to a three piece with Heather on guitar, Fiona Pears on violin and Ian Tilley on piano. It opened with the latter two doing two instrumentals highlighting Fiona's obvious ability. Third song in Heather comes on stage and launches into Gloomy Sunday, a jazz standard done by people like Billie Holliday. A track form Storm followed and although all very pleasant I was prepared to be disappointed in the mellow tone that was being set. However, I miss my Sky from the last album was next and the interplay between Heather's voice and the violin started to become prominent. After another new one, we get Heal from the classic Oyster album. This was fantastic and reminiscent of the old days. Amazing how such a heavy sound could be produced from just three musicians. After the lovely Papercup we had another surprise with Mothertongue form her first album. Again the heaviness of the track came out although I'm not sure the majority of the audience appreciated it or expected something like that. It then went a bit more acoustic and it was only when Winterblue kicked in we returned to the kind of music Heather is the best at. The first half of the set closed with All I Need, one of the more up tempo songs on Storm.
After a break, and another two songs from Fiona and Ian, Heather took to the stage alone and read a poem over her own loop which she created just before. This went straight into the rarely played Avalanche, a song I'd forgotton how tuneful it was. After a short solo set, the other two returned for the B-side Water From Wine which again highlighted how much we've missed Heather previously without a string accompaniment. Unfortunately after this the set seemed to lose its way with some more light acoustic songs sandwiched around a fairly poor version of Walk This World which was the only one of the set that didn't really fit round the violin. Certainly its a song that does need a hard bassline that was missing here. After a song called What A Feeling, (not a classic) she encored with a lullaby she wrote for her baby son called the Sun Will Always Rise, nice but a bit warbly, and Neil Youngs Like A Hurricane which again was pleasant.
All in all a very good show but again by a question of what might have been. As a regular attendee it was good to hear songs she hasn't played previously or for a long time, but a shame she missed her usual classics of London Rain, Heart & Shoulder, Doubled Up etc. Overall an 8 out of 10.
Once again though it was the typical mixed crowd for Heather, some of whom no doubt want the nice quiet songs and some who want the more rocky stuff. It is a difficult position when you need to get a balance right. Considering the front half of the venue was seated at tables then maybe something like Mothertongue was lost of them and conversely something like Done Drifting lost on the standing element. Ideally next tour will be with a full band but hopefully with a string accompaniment, something Fiona Pears on this showing is more than capable of.
At the end of the show I purchased Heathers CD of poems set to Ambient music based on her book the Sorrowjoy. Will be interesting if like the one read last night.
Set One - Memories of Martin & Helen / Magic Sense / Gloomy Sunday / You Left Me A Song / I miss My Sky / This Body / Heal / Papercup / Mothertongue / Motherland / Done Drifting / Winterblue / All I Need
Set Two - Turkish Fantasy / Dark Eyes / Poem - Blood And Bad Rose / Avalanche / These Walls / Storm / Water From Wine / Fool For You / I'm Alive / Walk This World / Walking Higher / What A Feeling ///////// The Sun Will Always Rise / Like A Hurricane
After a break, and another two songs from Fiona and Ian, Heather took to the stage alone and read a poem over her own loop which she created just before. This went straight into the rarely played Avalanche, a song I'd forgotton how tuneful it was. After a short solo set, the other two returned for the B-side Water From Wine which again highlighted how much we've missed Heather previously without a string accompaniment. Unfortunately after this the set seemed to lose its way with some more light acoustic songs sandwiched around a fairly poor version of Walk This World which was the only one of the set that didn't really fit round the violin. Certainly its a song that does need a hard bassline that was missing here. After a song called What A Feeling, (not a classic) she encored with a lullaby she wrote for her baby son called the Sun Will Always Rise, nice but a bit warbly, and Neil Youngs Like A Hurricane which again was pleasant.
All in all a very good show but again by a question of what might have been. As a regular attendee it was good to hear songs she hasn't played previously or for a long time, but a shame she missed her usual classics of London Rain, Heart & Shoulder, Doubled Up etc. Overall an 8 out of 10.
Once again though it was the typical mixed crowd for Heather, some of whom no doubt want the nice quiet songs and some who want the more rocky stuff. It is a difficult position when you need to get a balance right. Considering the front half of the venue was seated at tables then maybe something like Mothertongue was lost of them and conversely something like Done Drifting lost on the standing element. Ideally next tour will be with a full band but hopefully with a string accompaniment, something Fiona Pears on this showing is more than capable of.
At the end of the show I purchased Heathers CD of poems set to Ambient music based on her book the Sorrowjoy. Will be interesting if like the one read last night.
Set One - Memories of Martin & Helen / Magic Sense / Gloomy Sunday / You Left Me A Song / I miss My Sky / This Body / Heal / Papercup / Mothertongue / Motherland / Done Drifting / Winterblue / All I Need
Set Two - Turkish Fantasy / Dark Eyes / Poem - Blood And Bad Rose / Avalanche / These Walls / Storm / Water From Wine / Fool For You / I'm Alive / Walk This World / Walking Higher / What A Feeling ///////// The Sun Will Always Rise / Like A Hurricane
# posted by Rich @ 1:27 PM 
