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Bella Fleck and Abigail Washburn brought their banjos to Montreal on Tuesday, November 14th. First scheduled at the Corona Theatre but after a last minute venue change, the concert was moved to the L’Astral. The move proved itself to be quite fortunate as it provided a more intimate setting. 

The duo opened the concert with a few songs from their new album, Echo In The Valley, starting with a three song medley, “Sally In The Garden/Big Country/Molly Put The Kettle On”. Next up was “Railroad”, and then a question many of us may wonder at one time or another, “If I Could Talk To A Younger Me”.

There was a bit of banter between songs—Bella Fleck asking if we have banjos up here, and then after a boisterous “yes!” from the audience, he points out that banjos prove a civilized nation. The quiet attentive audience hung on every word and note. 

Ms. Washburn was the first to venture into the solo section of the evening; she left the microphone behind, telling the story of how she learned the next song sitting in a hot tub with the writer, Genie Harper. 

After reminiscing about his shows at the Spectrum with the Flecktones, it was Mr. Fleck’s turn to go solo with a couple of instrumental tunes from that era. The duo then returned for one last song before the end of the first set, “My Home’s Across The Blue Ridge Mountains”.

After a short break the pair returned with “Bloomin’ Roses”, and then a rousing version of “Don’t Let It Bring You Down”, both from the new album. It was story time again for a short while as Abigail Washburn recounted her time in college studying Chinese, before breaking out into “Lost Lamb” and “Song Of The Traveling Daughter” from her solo album of the same name. Both songs were sung in Chinese and English. 

Bella Fleck then offered up a short course in the different methods of banjo picking, with both artists trading barbs over which had the better method: his three-fingered style like legendary picker Earl Scruggs, or the more traditional (and better, according to Ms. Washburn) Clawhammer method.

Abigail Washburn then informs the audience about Sarah Ogan Gunning, the woman that penned the next song, “Come All Ye Coal Miners”. She then introduces Bella Fleck back to the microphone, when she mentions he is working on his third banjo concerto. She also mentioned that if anyone is working on their own they should see the documentary about Bella Fleck, How To Write A Banjo Concerto. He then played one piece from his first concerto, before playing a solo instrumental bluegrass-styled song.

The duo teamed back up with one last song, “Take Me To Harlem”, with Abigail Washburn adding some percussion, stomping her feet to Bella Fleck’s three-fingered banjo picking. 

After a hasty retreat, an out-of-breath Abigail Washburn and Mr. Fleck returned for the encore. The evening of splendid music ended on a gospel note, with the audience helping out with the harmonies during “Keys To The Kingdom”.

This looks absolutely insane... Want to go?

We're sending 5 lucky people (and a friend each) to Elevation 2018 on March 17th with Borgore, DATSIK, Space Jesus, Riot Ten, Carbin and more! Thanks to our friends over at evenko you'll be getting a pair before tickets just as they go on sale on Dec 9th

To win, just tag a friend below and send us an e-mail at promo@cjlo.com with the subject title "Elevation" 

Here's a little recap from years previous!

CJLO and The Rest of Us (Tuesdays at 8pm) are very pleased to present Ramona Córdova, Why Try (new project from Ryan White and Karyn Bailey) and Sarah M live at Casa del Popolo on Tuesday, January 16th!

Full event details can be found on Facebook, HERE. The show's only $7 (or pay-what-you-can)!

RSVP above and tune in every Tuesday to The Rest of Us, which features contemporary queer musicians and artists of colour, moving beyond the usual confines of genre to build a community around the music that emanates from it.

Check out this amazing video for "And On!" 

At this year’s New York Film Festival, Greta Gerwig, writer/director of Ladybird, asked the crowd, “What is Boyhood, but for a girl? What is The 400 Blows, but for a girl? What is personhood for young women?” Ladybird fits somewhere in between both of those films, while remaining singularly unique. Saoirse Ronan’s Christine, or Ladybird as she prefers to be called (prefers is a generous word, more like demands), is in her senior year at an all-girls Catholic School in Sacramento. It would be a mistake to call her a troublemaker or a ‘bad girl’. Gerwig is far too nuanced in her writing to create a female character that could categorized as such. But unlike Mason in Boyhood, Ladybird is uneasy and angry. She is angry with her mother who can’t afford to send her to the East Coast for college, she is angry with her hometown of Sacramento because it’s not New York, with the drama teacher that won’t cast her as the lead in the school musical, etc. But if the anger manifests as resentment, it also manifests as ambition. In order to self-realize, Ladybird must leave California.

Watching the film as a young woman myself is to experience of nostalgia, albeit recent nostalgia. To laugh at the private school educated boy who pridefully declares that he “hates money”, and at the way Ladybird dreams of going to college in New York even though she's never been there. What makes Ladybird so rich is the personal detail in every scene. The way she writes her crush’s name on her wall, only to cross it out once the fling has ended, or how she cries while listening to The Grapes of Wrath audiobook in the car with her mother.

Although the film covers many relationships (boyfriends, best friend, the girl you pretend is your best friend for a month), the one that resonates the most is her relationship with her mother Marion (Laurie Metcalf). The relationship is more than just troubled, it is borderline abusive. On both ends. Ladybird is selfish and doesn’t understand her family’s financial situation, and Marion is unsympathetic to her daughter’s desire to leave her hometown. There have been many on-screen mother/daughter relationships. But many of those portrayals result in the death of either family member (Steel Magnolias, Terms of Endearment), or are the subject of horror films (Carrie). Cinema is ill at ease at how to present mother/daughter relationships that aren’t tragic or destructive. Ladybird breathes life into the relationship.  

Though following the senior year of mostly one character, Ladybird is very wide in its scope, perhaps to a fault. The film packs so much into its 90 minute running time, that there is scarce room to breathe. Going from scene, to short montage, to scene, the film doesn’t linger on moments for very long. This is part of the reason why the final scene is such a masterpiece of writing and editing. Ladybird’s voicemail to her mother is juxtaposed with flashbacks of both her mother and herself driving in Sacramento. I have never been to Sacramento, but I couldn’t help but cry at the sight of a landscape I already felt nostalgic for.

Photo Credit: A24, Saoirse Ronan and Beanie Feldstein in Lady Bird