MORRISBURG – When the members of the St. Lawrence Acoustic Stage walked on stage at Upper Canada Playhouse on Saturday night, January 11, and announced that the crowd could look forward to “a really incredible night of music,” they were right. The six very unique performers in the Intimate Acoustics Showcase were incredible in every way.
IssaBel, Kaleb Hikele, Rachel Campbell, Ben Vallée, Katie Ditschun and Mathew Magneson are all artists who bring a special, personal approach to their music and lyrics. Each one is unique. The audience noted and savoured that wonderful uniqueness and throughly enjoyed each of their performances.
Mathew Magneson, a young Metis artist, opened, performing his original, and often very personal, pieces. He shared anecdotes with the audience which provided insight into his life experience themes in numbers such as “Do I Have to Disappear?” His guitar work possessed a strong rhythmic beat and his was a powerful and very distinctive voice.
IssaBel, who is actually a college student, is an artist who explores very personal themes through her music. She happily experiments in genres from rock, “Scream Out!” to the gentle, moving themes of a song she wrote for her father, following the death of his mother, her grandmother, “Daydream.” Her guitar work was powerful, as is her voice, and she had the audience laughing after she sang of a boy she once had a crush on who ultimately “ghosted” her. “If any guy breaks my heart, I will write a song about you!”
Kaleb Hikele finished the first set. An award winning artist who has just released his 12th album (“I suddenly realized that this is my 20th year of writing music,” he laughed), Kaleb has an extraordinary vocal range, and creates a strong rapport with listeners. He shared his gentler emotions in “Surprize me with a smile/I’ll stay here for a while…” and then literally had the audience rocking and laughing when he called for the house lights to come up and sang “In My Record Collection.” Completely at ease on stage, Kaleb was a deeply dynamic performer.
Following intermission, the next performer created a sound that was personal and unique. Katie Ditschun, from Alexandria, sat down at the keyboard, sharing with the audience her desire to “speak kindness and love.” A trained classical musician, with a background in jazz and contemporary, blessed with a rich voice that ranges from alto to soprano, she happily explores many musical styles and approaches, accompanying her songs with anecdotes and stories. The audience loved her music.
Ben Vallée from Montreal came on stage carrying a classic, much loved Gibson guitar, and shared the story of how he acquired this treasure. Very much in the style of the great folk singers, Ben lets his music speak of his passions and loves in pieces like “Seven Days and Seven Nights”. To this listener, Ben summoned up memories of the 60s, singing as he did with emotion, with power and with a true sense of humour. A highly skilled guitarist, who made that Gibson sing too, his music shares his life experiences (even the time he performed in a ‘slightly’ rough bar in West Montreal).
To end the magic evening, Rachel Campbell, her guitar and her fiddle, came on stage and shared the truth that music, in all its forms, had been the basis of her life since childhood. Passionate, with a strong, vibrant voice, she explained that “music can carry you anywhere you want to go,” and she took the audience along on her journey. “Crooked Mouth” written when she was 14, led to her latest piece, “Let the Birds Fly.” Music is her means of sharing feelings, and she certainly found many new fans who loved her special style and incredible musical talent.
At the end of the Intimate Acoustic concert, all six performers came out on stage to an audience that rose to its feet, clapping and cheering. As SLAS members promised, it was an “incredible” evening.