By Pepper Parr
April 25, 2016
BURLINGTON, ON
The notice that the place was going to be air conditioned certainly made it more inviting. The list of people who were to sing and play instruments was certainly worth the time. So off I went to the Second Annual Lowville Festival.
The world is populated with “first annuals” but the people who made this work last year were back and the program was solid.
Andy Griffiths on guitar with his particular play on different pieces of music; Jude Johnson who still knows how to belt them out;
Stuart Laughton – played a very very fine guitar on Saturday at the Lowville Festival.
Stuart Laughton who makes is guitar talk with his pick and managed to convince Barbara Anderson-Huget that he “was her man” as he did the Leonard Cohen cover.
Anderson-Hugest, along with Rob Missen and Lorretta are the founders of the Festival.
The evening got off to a solid start with Griffith playing “Knock on Heaven’s Door” and later doing “Sundown”.
It was a good audience – they filled more than ¾ of the space available at the Lowville United Church which, as Reverend Daryl Webber admitted later, was more than he was going to see the following Sunday.
Jude Johnson – “Forever Young”
Jude Johnson, kept reminding us that she was 62, but chose not to look like or act like a day of it. As she sang “Call out my name” many in the audience were mouthing the words along with the artist.
Stuart Laughton brings a graciousness to what he does. His music is superb but it is his small touches that makes him different.
The audience sat in hand carved pews painted a light yellow with no cushions – that didn’t seem to bother anyone.
There was a point at which Jude Johnson had the audience on their feet clapping along and applauding – Jude had the place rocking.
Ariel Rogers singing the Northwest Passage, including a seldom heard fifth verse.
The surprise of the evening was Ariel Rogers. She wasn’t on the program released earlier; it wasn’t until she explained that she was going to be singing Northwest Passage and would be adding the fifth verse that was seldom heard that the audience realized she was the wife of Stan Rogers who was lost in an aircraft fire in 1983; she was THAT Rogers.
As Ariel sang one realized that she was at the side of the man in their living room when he penned those words. As she put the sound of her voice behind those lyrics a touching sense of poetry filled the space.
Johnson fooled herself when she made it to some of the notes in a song she had never sung before; she should do “Forever Young” more often.
Paul Novotny doing the Porter’s Hymn on his bass. His performance was the star of the evening. Seldom does one hear this quality.
The stunner however was the solo performance done by Paul Novotny on his base. He pulled a sound out of that instrument that you hear wen jazz greats are playing. It was something to hear. When you see his name on a playbill – make a point of going to listen to him. Superb – best performer on the stage at Lowville on Saturday night – and there was some very very good talent in the room.
Carl Horton accompanied many of the performers on keyboard and then did a solo of “Lay Lady Lay” that was a delight to listen to.
It was a concert you shouldn’t have missed. It would appear to be evident that the Lowville Festival now has some traction and that the risk was rewarded
The opening night event at St. George’s Hall had a 60 member choir that we are told was stunning. Ward 3 Councillor John Taylor was at that event – he said he decided to attend the Saturday night concert in Lowville because he was really impressed with what he heard on Friday.
Taylor is of the belief that community created events like this deserve support from city hall. Every other ward in the city has been given funds (in the $5000 range) for this type of event.
What the founders of the Festival had in mind was getting events out of the downtown core and into the rural part of Burlington.
Their long term goal is to convince the city to let the event be held in Lowville Park where huge tents could be set up and allow for larger audiences.
Given the rate of growth year over year the audience will become too large for the Lowville church.
A community group has put on No Vacancy events for three years – the fourth year event will be taking place at the Art Gallery of Burlington where they will produce a one night show that has broken artistic boundaries and drawn audiences that surprised many.
The audience was on there feat on more than one occasion. Jude Johnson did it when she sang Forever Young and Paul Novotny stunned the audience with his solo performance on bass.
There are cultural groups being formed throughout the city that are not part of the heavily subsidized Performing Arts Centre and Art Gallery of Burlington – they need more attention – they are the “real” Burlington – not road shows that rent space in a publicly subsidized building.
