April Verch and her band, One Longfellow Square, Portland Maine, August 17, 2007
Ahhhh, the perfect fiddler of Appalachian tunes (and her own compositions which are quite impressive) who also is a lovely singer in one of the finest venues anywhere -- what a pleasant combination on a late summer evening!
Before I look at the concert, let's look at One Longfellow Square -- a charming, dynamic and intimate performance venue dedicated to producing interesting and exciting shows here in Portland, Maine. The venue at One Longfellow Square can accommodate film, theatre, dance, and, of course, music. But it really shines as a musical venue -- acoustically perfect, small enough to allow performers to be one with the audience, and not a bad seat in the space from the viewpoint of appreciating whoever is performing! One Longfellow Square resides in the building formerly known as the Center for Cultural Exchange who also put on some of the finest music one would hope to hear -- when CCE operated the space, I saw Kalman Balogh's Hungarian Gypsy Cimbalom Band there, as well as Swedish performers Frifot, Aly Bain and Ale Moller, Lunasa, Vasen, and Les Yeux Noirs, to name but some outstanding performances. After a period of inactivity, it was purchased locally in 2007 and is now emerging as Portland's best performance venue. It is located conveniently on the corners of State and Congress Streets at the entrance to Portland's Arts District. Of the many performance spaces in our city, it is my favorite, with only the Portland Stage Company's main space being in the running also as a great performance space.
One of our reviewers, Pat Simmonds, while not being pleased with an early recording, Fiddelicious, did sum her up nicely: 'April Verch is one of the many younger fiddlers coming out of Canada these days, making a name for herself as a professional musician, and maintaining the great Canadian tradition of fiddling and step dancing. She professes to a 'love of traditional fiddle music' in her liner notes although of the 15 tracks on this album only four contain any traditional material. As one would expect from a midwestern musician, the content and style is varied but the underlying influences of Metis, Scandinavian, German, Gospel and others show through with polkas, jigs and waltzes and the unmistakable 'oompa oompa' that goes with it... April has been studying at Berkley and it shows, her tone and attack are impeccable. Her sessions at the Mark O'Connor School show through, as well in the discipline of her playing.'
Now let me note that Fiddelicious is nearly a decade old which means that April was barely eighteen years old when she recorded it! Fiddling is bred in her bones, but a decade on this fiddler is a far better player in every way that counts -- she is, in concert and on her recent recordings, simply a performer who must be seen live. Some performers who I've seen might as well be Disney animatronics singing songs which are just recordings! April's got enough fiery sprit in her to make anyone listen to her play. (I did not take notes as I was enjoying the concert -- so do not expect a blow by blow account of what she played.) Certainly, seeing her at One Longfellow Square was about as perfect as it could get as Tom Rota, One Longfellow Square manager and an Uillean piper, did a spot-on job of riding the sound board. (Tom worked for the Center for Cultural Exchange so he knows the space very well -- and it shows.) The April of today is, in recorded form, a better, much more accomplished performer.
April Verch and her band (including husband Marc Bru on percussion), were touring in support of Take Me Back, her third recording on Rounder. The previous night, they had played at the Unity Centre for the Performing Arts, and would play the Perkinstock Bluegrass Festival the following night. Yes, she's a rather crack Bluegrass fiddler as well! Or perhaps all of the genre labels mean little in the end... She played, as I recall now, most everything off the new album with 'Tennessee Wagoner' and 'Tom, Brad & Alice' being the two tunes I remember the clearest. 'Tennessee Wagoner' is an Irish influenced tune that I'd swear I know by another name, but none of the Neverending Session musicians here at Green Man could agree on what it might be called. Even odder is that I think Aly Bain and Ale Moller play it as well! They also played a brilliant set of tunes from her home area, 'The Ottawa Valley Medley: The Road to Fort Coulonge/Welder's Jig/Morning Star/One for Dugald/Blue Pacific Hornpipe' which again reminded me how pourous the genres of Appalachain, Bluegrass, and Celtic are!
How good is she live? If The Square, as it's known by most folks around here, does her again, I'll go see her. She's that good. And The Square was the perfect setting for her brand of American roots. Kudos to all who made this concert possible!
