In Bloom

No new shoots have poked through the ground yet, but hope springs eternal. Meanwhile, I headed down to The Drake Underground Tuesday night to warm myself with the smooth and honeyed vocals of Emilie Mover.

Quite taken with both her live show and new songs a few weeks ago, I was anxious to get my hands on her new album Mighty Time being released today. Tonight, she focused almost exclusively on new material including Fishes, True Love, Ride With The Tide, and You Don't Treat Me Right. Hurting songs never sounded so sweet or wistful. For this show, she had some back-up players sitting for a few song including Jessie Cowe on harmony and the beatific buddha on percussion. Her covers Only Him Or Me (Townes Van  Zandt) and Tonight You Belong To Me fitted nicely with her own material.

Nicki Bluhm (And The Gramblers) are best known on Youtube for their Van Sessions, where they record covers while driving in their tour van. From San Francisco, this was their first visit to Canada. With bearded men (including a ringer for The Macho Man Randy Savage) and Nicki with long hair and bangs, they looked like 70s era Fleetwood Mac. Not surprisingly, their music had that classic country-tinged Americana sound. I wasn't enamoured with some of the new country numbers, but when the songs veered into blue-grass and honky-tonk (Stick With Me, Go Go Go, I'm Your Woman), they played catchy and fun music. Their set came mostly from their two albums (Toby's Song, Driftwood) with a few songs (Till Am Blue, Santa Fe) from an upcoming release. I was particularly taken with their 3 harmonies, acoustic cover of Sarah Siskind's In The Moutain.