Angels On High

On Tuesday, I was at The Drake Underground for my last live show of this year. It was a wonderful evening to cap off 2018. Georgian Bay opened the night. This duo sang of mining towns and everyday observations. They were multi-instrumentalists (mandolin, violin, guitar) and sang in harmony. The songs often mix both English and French in the lyrics. The new song Roi was a rousing feminist anthem. Though if it was anti-patriarchical, "je suis une reine" would be more suitable lyrics.

The O'Pears album release set was the best show that I saw this year. The trio took the stage and dazzled us with complex harmonies. The swelling chorus from still un-released song Thunder gave me goose-bumps. When you think it couldn't get any better, they brought in a full band, a string section, and 3 additional back-up singers. This made the songs from Stay Warm astonishingly beautiful live, surpassing even their wonderful recording. Then they dialed it back for the last few songs, showing that just their voice was enough on covers River (Joni Mitchell), The Way I Feel (Gordon Lightfoot), and Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas.