Emilie-Claire Barlow in Huntsville

I'll forgive you if you think I spend my entire summer chasing young, female jazz singers around.  It has been an easy task this summer.

First of all, I love female jazz singers.  Male jazz singers are fine also but there don't seem as many of them these days.  If Michael Buble comes, it's a big deal, expensive tickets, and a big theatre or auditorium.  Matt Dusk would be a little better, but there always seems to be a problem when he comes, I'm working that night for example.  But summers are good, and I don't mind traveling a bit for something to do on a nice weekend.

This is the second year in a row we have gone to Huntsville for their annual Jazz Festival.  Last year the headliner was Nikki Yanofsky, this year it was Emilie-Claire Barlow.  These two ladies are pretty much tied for my favourite singer, so it was good to see both of them at the festival.  And, in two separate years, so no overnight accommodation was even required.

It was a beautiful day for a drive to Huntsville.  We needed the air conditioner for the drive up, but just barely.  The traffic was fine, except for a little slowdown around Brechin which messed things up all the way down to the Hwy 48 turnoff.  But generally, a lot better than last years' drive.  We arrived at dinner time and made our way to Crabby Joe's.  This is a small chain restaurant, in case you haven't heard of them, with pretty good prices.  The three of us had two appetizers, my wife had a beer, my daughter and I each had a soft drink, and three main courses, and the bill was only in the $60 neighbourhood.  We killed a couple of hours there, then made our way downtown.

We parked on the street, right outside the theatre.  If we had been any closer we'd have been parked in the lobby.  Man, I love little towns.  Wendy sat outside the theatre while Victoria and I walked down to the park near the water to have a game of checkers.

Last year there was a bag of checker pieces in a bag near the permanent, carved rock checkerboard.  I guess they blew away in the wind, or some clown stole them so we had a board with no pieces.  We didn't have enough coins to play (dimes vs. quarters) but fortunately Victoria had a checker game on her smart phone.  As silly as it was, we placed the phone on top of the checkerboard and played that way.  Oh yeah, she creamed me.

Then on to the concert.  We were in the fourth row, dead centre.  The theatre was not full, but pretty close.  I don't think there was anybody in the balcony.  Emilie came out right at eight, as scheduled.  She had only five pieces with her this year--piano, drums, bass, guitar, and saxaphone.  Last year in Picton she had two other horn players, a trombone and a flute.  One of them changed to a trumpet occasionally, if I recall.

The Algonquin Theatre in Huntsville is a beautiful place for a concert.  Four hundred and eight seats, including the balcony.  Nice, generous, comfortable seats in a pretty intimate space.  But--no cameras allowed.  Last year I managed to sneak a few photos during the Nikki Yanofsky concert.  Because the theatre is so small my few photos turned out pretty good.  But this year, still embarrassed by Molly Ringwald, my wife asked me, after the announcement that photos were strictly prohibited, to please put away my camera, so I did.  Too bad though--from the second row (explanation later) I could have taken some amazing photos, especially during the encore.  What are they going to do, throw me out?

From last year's show in Picton.

Emilie-Claire Barlow with Reg Schwager on guitar in Picton, 2012.

I was concerned that the concert would be more French than English, as she is touring to support her most recent CD, Seule de soir, which is entirely in French.  But she sang mostly from her previous CD, The Beat Goes On recognizing, I suppose, the mostly English-speaking audience.  It was pretty similar to her last years' show in Picton.

There was a short intermission.  During this time we moved from the fourth row to the second row which, for some reason, was almost empty.  Not so much because it was closer, but for the extra space.  And, we were nearer to the stage too, which is a good thing.

She sang more French songs in the second half.  I don't think anyone minded--most Canadians are okay with French, even though most of us couldn't hold a conversation in French to save our lives.  But it is familiar and a lot of Emilie's best songs are in French so, no problem.  She still did some English songs throughout.

Last year Emilie had Reg Schwager playing guitar for her.  He's an excellent musician and it was great.  She had someone else this year, a name I didn't recognize but he was okay.  Not that he was bad, he just didn't impress me the way Reg did last year.  Guitar is very important to Emilie's songs, as it is to Susie Arioli, so it is important to have a great guitar player.  The bass player was excellent, however--Emilie said they went to high school together and were in her first band together.  She wouldn't tell us the name of the band, as it would be too embarrassing apparently.  One of the stand-out songs of the concert was the duet that Emilie and the bass player did together.

Emilie-Claire Barlow and me, after the show.

Anyway, if I were a real reporter I would have a song list and know the names of all the musicians, but I don't have either.  Let's just say we had a good time, Emilie is a great singer, the show was just under two hours, and Huntsville is a beautiful town.  There was a little rain at first on the drive home, but nothing to worry about.

I look forward to her next concert that I can attend, probably next summer.  She IS doing a show at the Wintergarden Theatre this Fall that I would love to go to, but it is on a Saturday night, so I'll be working.  But if you're in the Toronto area and can go, do so!