I wake up every morning to UVic's campus radio station, which plays folk music in the mornings and offers hot tips on local talent when I'm lucid enough to remember them.
The other day Katrina Kadoski and Hugh Fisher came on the radio to sing some songs and promote the projects they are working on.
Katrina's current project stems from her work with the Boat Basin Foundation, where she learned about the life of Cougar Annie, a pioneer woman who lived and worked on remote lands north of Tofino. As the caretaker of Cougar Annie's Garden, Katrina was inspired to write songs about Cougar Annie's life and the landscape out of which the legends surrounding her grew.
Hugh has been working with Katrina to support her songs musically, and is also preparing for his own CD release. They played their first of several shows together last night at the Orange Hall.
Hugh opened the night with a short set of his own material. He played a mix of songs and instrumentals, showcasing his talents on guitar and harmonica. His voice is soft, smokey and very compelling. His song Lost Lovers opened with the lyrics "If I fall asleep I will dream of you; If I dream of you my heart will break". They seem thin to write them out on the screen, but something in their delivery drew me right in. Perhaps Hugh just has a way with hypotheticals: in Lazy Day he sang about doing nothing at all, and moved me with the lyrics "If a girl comes by, I won't look [...] If the earth quakes I won't get shook".
Next was a set of Cougar Annie songs played by Katrina with backup from Hugh and a percussionist. Katrina introduced the story of Cougar Annie. Long before older women were called cougars for a different reason, Cougar Annie got her nickname for allegedly shooting over 80 cougars to protect her family and livestock. A slideshow played behind the musicians showing both historical and contemporary photos of the garden, Annie and her family.
The opening song, Remittance Man, was the highlight of the set. It was followed by several more songs about Willie Rae-Arthur, Annie's first husband who drove her to take her family to the wild in the first place with his persistent opium addiction and alcoholism. The peotry of Annie and Willie's story was brought into focus by Katrina's stunning voice. Although the sound was maybe too beautiful and clean to represent the harshness of pioneer life, Katrina really did give life to the spirit of Cougar Annie through her song.
After a short break the musicians returned for a final set, which was for me even more captivating than the last. With each song we learned another part of Annie's story and watched as her character took shape in front of us. Katrina began a song about rowing to Tofino a cappella, using the face of her banjo and her feet as percussion. As the song moved to discuss the impact of the introduction of moterboats to the area, the song picked up speed as well with the full band jumping in to support the growing energy.
Rainforest George introduced us to three of the George's in Annie life: Her father, her second husband (who shared their age in addition to their name) and her fourth husband, who ended up being driven away by Annie at gun point. The other George's in Annie's life, a son and a duck, haven't found their way into the song, yet.
The use of the photos to compliment the music was most effective for me during Do What You Have To. (Ironically, I noticed from the folder labels that the photos shown during this song were not those intended by the artist). The song told us about Annie's son Tommy, who was her only companion and help for years when children had fled the nest and husbands were dead or gone. Tommy, who suffered an injury which had him in a coma for some time, was compelled to stay on the farm under threat that leaving would see him end up in a mental institution. The words, "If I keep you in the garden, I won't lose another son" were overlaid with images of the beautiful flowers that are currently in the garden, a reminder that in spite of the harshness of pioneer life there was a beauty there that could hold someone for a while.
The set ended appropriately with a tribute to Annie's claim to fame: a wild toe-tapping number that takes us along with Annie as she shoots cougars by the dozens with her .33 and strings 'em up in The Skinning Tree. Katrina wielded her guitar like a loaded gun and even blew smoke off the barrel to finish off the night.
It was an incredible evening of storytelling, folklore and song. It just doesn't get any better than a small acoustic show where musicians pour their hearts out for you and invite you into the passion and energy of their work. And how often do you go to shows where the headlining musician personally bakes cookies and serves them with tea to the audience during the break?
Check out Hugh Fisher:
CBC Radio 3
Check out Katrina Kadoski:
Official Site
MySpace
