These Foolish Sings

On April 1st instead of pranks I headed to the Tranzac club for a night of intimate music. Four local singers, sans their band, played four enjoyable sets. Because it was a low-key affair, they tried out lots of new material. Alyson McNamara had a folk sound with a tinge of country (Tuck and Roll) although there was some detour including an ode to robo-romance with Wired To Love. She ended with a driving bluesy number called After Hours. Sandy Martin (Jackets) offered up country/rock/americana with quiet and bleak stories of prairie towns of cold wind and regret. He left the toe tapping to covers such as Monkey and the Engineer.

Kim Manning started on the piano. There, with a big voice and some deft playing, there was R&B in songs like Stay. But perhaps because of her formal music education, bits of musical theatre and other styles could also be heard. On guitar, with help from Emilie Mover and Martin, it was more straight-forward blues/rock and even some blue-grass on new tune My Home; perhaps the only song she has written while in a happy state, Manning admitted. This made Mover quipped that all her songs will be downers.

And she was right. But her melancholic songs was perfect to wind down the night as we crept past midnight. I'm always struck by her lyrical skill: concise phrasing and simple rhymes that can evoke scenes and feelings with such economy. I enjoyed sneaking glances at the listeners' faces as they feel the full impact of her verses a split second later. She might sing sad songs but as a performer, Mover was sly and funny, and just a touch perverse. And she may "really like E" (musical key), but all the jazz chords she throws in change the feel of each song. The only problem with a Mover set is that you immediately want a recording of her new stuff.