Out of the woods

I made my second trip to Bar Robo on Wednesday to catch some folky  andd roots-rocking action courtesy of Old Cabin, Clara Engel and Quin Gibson. The night started with a solo turn from Gibson, who's also a member of local combo The Steamers.



Acoustic action!



Next up, Clara Engel, who has a fantastic voice that's ideal for her eerie tunes.



And so on!



Things got a bit louder with Old Cabin. Last time Jon Barr came through (when Raw Sugar occupied the space), he had some local horn accompaniment and Laura Beach on violin, this time around he had a more conventional lineup with a keyboardist, drummer and bassist. Here's Jon!



Tuqued action!



Percussive action!



Keyboard action!



Jon sings!



Elderly action!



Rhythm section action!



And so on!



A very pleasant evening. I also heartily recommend Bar Robo's hibiscus soda.

Voices from the past

Back on August 15 I headed over to Raw Sugar for an intimate show featuring Twin Voices, Old Cabin, Bosveld (who I gather were the main draw for a lot of folks) and Ancient Voices. Things started with Twin Voices, which despite the name is actually one person, Ottawa's Laura Beach. She makes excellent use of loops and her own lovely voice to make some enchanting music.



Gripping action!



Old Cabin is Yukon's Jon Barr; he's been touring with Beach.



There was also some horn accompaniment, courtesy of Jean-Francois Beachamp of Amos The Transparent fame and Bosveld's Jeremy Mulder.



Laura Beach kicked in some vocals and violin near the end.



And so on!



On to Bosveld, who also do the electro-folk thing, former Kalle Mattson man Thean Slabbert rounds out the duo.



Good crowd!



Things thinned out a bit for Ancient Voices, which is a pity, since they were excellent; a bit reminiscent of The Clientele, I'd say.



Ancient action!



Singalong action!



A very pleasant evening.