New Testament

Thursday night, I headed over to the St. Lawrence Market area. The Esplanade is a pretty street but it hosts mostly touristy businesses like Bier Markt or The Keg. But Bar Cathedral, which shares space with The Old Spaghetti Factory, was a small, welcoming space with soaring ceilings and stained glass windows. I was there to see two young musicians.

First up was Allegra Jordyn with a solo set. She sang love songs (or at least its drama) like Numb, Ruin My Life, Lead You On on piano and guitar. She reminded me a bit of Mieke but I suppose there's never a shortage of broken hearts. Jordyn had some good pipes even if, for the moment, her lyrics aren't quite at the level of Dreams, her Fleetwood Mac cover.

Avery Raquel was having a CD release party tonight. I first heard her four years ago in a showcase of female Jazz singers doing standards and pop covers. I was curious to hear her own material tonight. After the first song, I thought "Amy Winehouse meets Nikki Yanofsky". Raquel admitted that her biggest influences were Winehouse and 70s music. So there was a Winehouse cover (He Can Only Hold Her) with a bit of Lauren Hill (That Thing) but also segues into Winehouse and Carol King during her own songs. Whether Please, You Said, or Helpless, her big voice was ably backed by a band leaning into that punchy 70s R'n'B. Despite her age, she had 4 albums of music to draw on including Don't You Worry 'Bout A Thing that she wrote at 13. Raquel finally got the crowd to stand up and dance on her final number Put Your Love On Me.

One downer was that the audience were almost all friends and family. An artist need to perform in a space where new fans might be found. But she announced during the show that her new album debuted at number 5 on iTunes Canadian R'n'B chart. So hopefully next concert, she'll find her peeps.