For such a small place, Kingston has produced and/or nurtured a wide range of extremely talented musicians and bands. Some bands exist only while the members are at the University and then are left behind when the people leave for the real world, others continue to perform and grow as artists. Jill Barber is a wonderful case of the latter. First as part of the indie-rock band Bent Ivy and then as a solo artist, she developed as a musician right here before leaving for Halifax. However, a few times a year she returns, often to the Grad Club where she performed in front of an audience for the first time, to share her wonderful folky/jazz-tinged songs. For those unfamiliar with her, she is a singer-songwriter who has a rich, warm voice which she uses most often to tell stories of love and its aftermath.
What I have from this show from November of last year is only a small portion of her performance. Since recording this show I learned a valuable lesson: carefully label your tapes. You would think that would be a no-brainer but one that sometimes is forgotten. This is important for two reasons 1) so you don’t record over the show (which I did for the first half), and 2) so you don’t use a tape that has other stuff on it which may linger (the ‘ghost’ of Dire Straits’ “Money for Nothing”, of all things, haunts the background of the latter songs, which makes for a poor mashup). So I put the four songs that I do have that don’t include something unwanted in the background, including one new song “Legacy” (which got cut off at the end). I have another recording of from earlier in 2005 that I will post sometime in the future so if you like this check back in a while. As usual this is an audience recording so the quality isn’t the best possible but I think you might like it nevertheless.
To round out this short post I have added two other songs - one from Barber’s first solo ep and one from a compliation from her band Bent Ivy. Both are fantastic and I can’t recommend them highly enough.
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Jill Barber, Grad Club, Kingston, 8 November 2005
1) Oh Heart.mp3 (3.66 MB)
2) Measures & Scales.mp3 (4.75 MB)
3) Legacy.mp3 (3.01 MB)
4) Two Brown Eyes.mp3 (3.43 MB)
Bonus - from A Note to Follow So
* The Best View.mp3 (3.97 MB)
Super Bonus - from the Ultraviolet 2000 compilation :
* Bent Ivy, New Orleans.mp3 (3.6 MB)
[As far as I know this is the only Bent Ivy song recorded but on the listing from the 2001 CMW site, it states that Bent Ivy released an album - can anyone tell me if this is true? You will be my hero if you can provide me with more Bent Ivy tracks]
photo by Rainbowerin
Do yourself a big favour and get A Note to Follow So and Oh Heart from Zunior (the latter also available in CD form from Miles of Music).
This song was an outake from the “Set Yourself on Fire” sessions. It was released as a 7″ single (with a remix of “What The Snowman Learned About Love”). It is a interesting song with a staccato, spoken delivery in the verses, an upbeat tempo and some nice harmonies and it stays within the theme of “sex and death and robots” of “Set Yourself…”