Feels So Good

On Monday, it was back to the Cameron House for another Case of the Mondays. Before we get to the Guilty Pleasures set, 3 local musicians did 30-minute sets.

Stacey Kay sang sassy, urban-inflected songs, whether it was her own material (Island Girl, Take A Ride) or covers (Killing Me Softly, Forget You). She was animated on stage and given to both diva-esque singing and busta-rhymes rapping. Patrick Ballantyne was an older singer-songwriter who has collaborated with numerous Canadian artists. His lyrics were often simply phrased which did not work well on sappy love songs. But on the folkier tunes (Lost My Way), spirituals (Rolling Thunder) or rockabilly (She Loves A Man), it was a great fit.

The revelation of the evening was Miranda Mulholland with her guest guitarist, Justin Rutledge. The two of them had just flown in from the Vancouver Folk Festival. Whether it was her own original fiddle instrumentals (Charity Kiss, Shiloh) or beautiful covers, her voice and lyricism carried a timeless quality. She also played a mean fiddle. Mulholland's take on James Gordon's Frobisher Bay and Rutledge's Be A Man were spine-tingling.

Emma-Lee and her house band closed out the evening with some "guilty pleasures". It started with Toxic (Britney Spears) and ended with Don't Stop Believin' (Journey). In between, Emma-Lee and her guests went through all the decades (Video Games, I Kissed A Girl, Hero, I Wanna Dance With Somebody) to entertain us with these catchy ear candy.