Wednesday night at the Winnipeg Folk Exchange, the renowned folk trio from Newfoundland, The Once, took the stage in the corner of the small brightly coloured room, and went on to perform yet another magical show.  This was their fourth such show on their current tour of Pop Up shows, promoting their second album Row Upon Row To The People They Know, in smaller more intimate venues across Western Canada, and it was simply incredible.  No other stage could be more suitable for the power and honesty, the poise and wholesomeness produced by The Once.
A near twenty song set with ten songs played without amplification made this unlike any normal concert, but more of a family gathering in the host’s kitchen; Newfie hospitality is unmatched. True to their roots, The Once played several of their own compositions, half a dozen or so traditional songs from the Maritimes and the British Isles like “By The Glow Of The Kerosene Light,” and of course their own priceless covers of Leonard Cohen’s “Coming Back To You” and “Anthem,” Bob Dylan’s “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight”, Queen’s “You’re My Best Friend” (which they originally took on for a wedding), and Al Pittman’s “Cradle Hill” and “Nell’s Song.”
The stories they told about the history of the songs ranged from the truly heart wrenching tales of Geraldine Hollett’s father’s brushes with death as a fisherman which were retold in “Three Fishers” and “Charlie’s” to Phil Churchill’s playing his first shows in St. John’s pubs and ordering a beer from the beautiful bartender in “A Round Again,” and Andrew Dale’s explanations about the Feast of Cohen which lead to The Once performing two great Cohen songs.
Artistically I have no doubt that The Once could take any song and produce a cover that combines warming ingenuity and strong resemblance to the original; likewise for their own creations.  Individually any member could have a strong career as a musician, but together their voices and instrumental abilities create remarkable sounds that are crisp and thoughtfully cultivated to bring audiences to a dead silence practically begging for yet another note to be struck.  Beyond the impeccable musical and vocal abilities of the trio they have the stage presence to make any show memorable with casual banter, Andrew’s especially witty remarks, and personal conversations with young audience members.  The best moment from this particular evening was when a young man with an infectious laugh was invited to the front of the room so he could have a better seat.  There is one negative thing, however, that I must say about this show and the limitations of The Once in general: they’re only in Winnipeg for two shows—so disappointing! Jesse Blackman

by Sheldon Birnie

I had a couple beers with Matt and Andy from the Mag 7s this afternoon — hard traveling troubadours if ever there were any — interviewing them for an upcoming feature for Stylus. Keep your eyes peeled, friends, it’s a gooder! The problem is, though, that I have yet to transcribe the SOG, and the clock is ticking down to load in for the One Hundred Dollars show at Pop Soda’s.

Maybe if we’d drank less beer, maybe if I’d eaten more food, I wouldn’t be sitting here typing up excuses on the Hillbilly Highway when I should be transcribing a half hour of interviewee gold. But there is always tomorrow, and the deadline is at least a day away. Plenty of time for a professional to get his shit together and deliver the goods. Live fast, live free!

Right now, I’m listening to the new Mag 7s disc, All Kinds of Mean, courtesy of Transistor 66, and it is solid, partner! I’ll review the platter in good time, never fear, but for now I’d like to reflect on some personal memories I hold of one of my favourite local acts…

I first heard of the Magnificient 7s back in 2006. At the time, I was living in a house in South Osborne, playing in a couple shitty punk bands. One of those bands used to host basement shows at our place, and one of the groups we used to get to play were called the Ponys. The Ponys soon changed their name to the Ex-Girlfriends, and made a name for themselves on the local punk/garage circuit. It was a pretty sweet band, three babes who partied hard and weren’t half bad at rocking out.

During one of these gigs, Ida told us we should check out her other band, the Magnificent 7s, who were playing some street-fest later that week. Sure, sure, we said, half-assed committing to do so.

But me and my pals ended up checking them out, and I was blown away. Here was a band that was perfecting the ideal mix of old time, traditional country/bluegrass with contemporary punk rock ethos, and having a blast with it the whole while.

Since that fateful day, I’ve seen the Mag 7s play plenty of times, and even shared the stage with them more than once — at the Albert, the Park Theatre, and the Shine On! festival out near Steinbach. During the latter, me and a few of the other Gad Guys had downed a hearty helping of zoomers, and dug their set on an ethereal plane beyond anything witnessed up to that point. Beautiful shit on a starry night out in the sandilands, just beautiful!

The Mags are hosting a CD release in Winnipeg in December. Stylus will be profiling them in our upcoming issue, and I urge you heartily to check them out, if you have or have not already. You won’t fucking regret it. Pick up their new disc when you get a chance, too. Toe tapping good time drinking music! Bottoms up!

by Sheldon Birnie

“I think of [Winnipeg] as a really tough city, a city that has survived a lot,” Simone Schmidt, lead singer of Toronto based country band One Hundred Dollars, told me when I had the opportunity to chat with her on CKUW last week. Currently on the road supporting their latest release, Songs of Man, the band will be passing back through Winnipeg on Tuesday, November 15 after playing the West End Cultural Centre earlier this fall with Elliott Brood.

“I feel like there’s a grittiness to Winnipeg that I really dig. When you come from a city like Toronto, where I’m from, where there’s just so much new money pumping into it that it sort of allows people to deny history, and deny the past because buildings are always being torn down and built up new.”

Our conversation was cut short a couple times, as the band was driving the Crow’s Nest Pass between Fernie and Nelson, B.C. The mountains were wreaking havoc with Simone’s cell reception, but we managed to have a great conversation about country music nonetheless. I also caught up with her a few days later, exchanging text messages as the band boarded a ferry from Vancouver to the Island.

“Country music in particular makes more room for explicit story telling than most other genres and in that sense it’s relatable to people,” Simone says of country music’s appeal. “And it is generally tragic music, hurting music. Most people feel that.”

“I think I first fell in love with country music when I was about 15,” Simone explained to listeners last Friday. Visiting her brother, who is a bluegrass musician in Nova Scotia, Simone stumbled upon the voice of George Jones in a cabin with electricity, but no running water.  “[The cabin] had a 5 CD disc changer. I started playing, by chance, George Jones on the CD player. A song called ‘Just One More’ came on and I freaked out in my mind. I didn’t ever know that anyone could sing with that much emotion. After that I was obsessed with George Jones for years, I listened to him all the time, and I kind of taught myself how to sing by singing along to George Jones.”

From that first introduction to country, Simone explained that she quickly “got into blue grass music because that’s what my brother was into and I look up to him a lot and loved the harmonies and the virtuosity of the musicianship. I got really into the 70’s era of grass players who were sort of rejected by the purists, like the Seldom Scene and Old & In The Way. They picked the best songs and crossed out if bluegrass quite a bit.”

“Because I was born in the 80’s, I had so many distinct eras of country to sift through and find my favorites,” she continued. “Jones’ catalog was expansive and I just sort of got deep in it. Later I got into Tom T. Hall’s writing and so I’d listen to whoever was recording his songs. I was really struck by Bobbie Gentry too, but her career was so short. And then I got into Dolly who I think was the most courageous writer in terms of certain stories she was telling, like ‘Down from Dover.’ A true feminist.”

I asked Simone whether she felt any contemporary country artists were doing similar work to One Hundred Dollars. Not really, she replied, but directed me to some of her favourite contemporary acts.

“There’s a band out of Toronto called the Pining who’s got a great writer in it, her name’s Julie Faught who’s writing some really beautiful songs,” she said. “There are six members in that band, and they’re all writing great stuff. You should check them out for sure. I’ve been listening to a lot of Dwight Yoakam lately. I also really like the Foggy Hogtown Boys, which are a bluegrass band in Toronto. They’ve really inspired me over the years. And everyone should check out John Showman, who’s a great fiddle player from a band called New Country Rehab.”

Simone clearly commands a wealth of knowledge on the subject of country music, and I felt I could keep asking her questions for hours. However, there’s only so much time in a day, so I called it quits as the band rolled into Victoria, and the sun set in Winnipeg. Make sure to check this band out when the Highway brings them to Pop Soda’s on November 15^th. It’s gonna be a good night for country music, I guarantee it.

Stephen Kurz hit up the WECC back in sunny mid-October to shoot the Canadian rapper/producer Socalled.
Here’s what he saw:

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