The Sound of Bulat

I went to an 30 minute in-store show at SoundScapes given by folk singer Basia Bulat. As the 7 pm start approaches, the staff was moving the shelves out of the way. I think one of them thought I was one of those weird loners who lack basic social skills since I emitted a short cackle when he pulled a shelf away. Well, I'll cop to the weird loner part but in my defense, I had noticed that somebody was looking at a CD on the same shelf. The mental image of him being startled by the retreating shelf cracked me up. Unfortunately, the shelf had sections and only the right-most one moved.

As the store filled up, I made my way to the front row. Noticing that the mob was getting 10 to 15 persons deep; Ms. Bulat is diminutive in person; and I'm of the philosophy that "If everybody sits, everybody can see" (a situation that is sadly rare at live shows), I plopped my winter coat on the floor and sat down on it as the show was about to start. Things could have gone either way but two other girls decided to follow suit. That started the ball rolling and most every one sat down except for the people along the sides and at the very back. I received congratulatory pats on the back for my initiative and what do you know, everybody can see!

As an aside, given that some people tell me I look young for my age, and my own mental immaturity, I have this self-image of myself as looking no more than mid to late 20s though I'm approaching my late 30's. This could be pure self-delusion and even if not, eventually it will no longer be true. So sooner or later, I'll simply be a weird old man to people who are, on average, probably 15 years younger than me.

Basia gave an un-amplified performance, though her auto-harp was miked. It was a good performance marred only slightly by two things: her new guitar that she bought in Halifax, and the quiet audience. She bought the guitar for the "Marvel B" label (to go with Basia? Bulat?) but it didn't tune well. The quiet audience was perhaps a consequence of unfamiliarity with her new material or the coffee-shop atmosphere. A more boisterous audience might have given her more energy but overall, she did remark later that the show had a nice, intimate feeling.

Things I learned chatting with her a bit after the show. One, she seemed like a nice person. An old friend of hers came up after the show. Upon finding out that it's his birthday, she told him to stay a bit and they'll make plans for the rest of the evening. Two, she's probably only about 5'2". Three, she's quite young as the afore-mentioned friend is one of those young man who grows a scraggly beard to hide how young he looks. Four, she doesn't usually have an instrument in mind when she writes. She experiments with matching up words and music, and some songs composed on one instrument end up being played on another. Finally, she doesn't sing Polish songs as part of her repertoire except one time last December in Poland. In fact, she thought about doing a Polish song this evening. It would have been great. This article suggests that she may decide to release a Polish CD.

P.S. Another tidbit, though not officially listed on her website, her next show in Toronto will be in June.