Brandon Hoffman
Special to Tribune/Advisor
For this Friday’s Safety Meeting concert we have two fantastic artists that probably should have each had their own headlining night, but since they share so many band members we thought we’d do an epic double-bill.
For weeks after Leathan Milne’s Safety Meeting concert last year people were commenting on the show. The guy knows how to pull those heart strings.
He will be on the same bill this Friday, Feb. 26 at the Central Cariboo Arts Centre with singer/songwriter Lydia Hol.
Tickets for this one are suggested at $15 and available at Red Shred’s Bike and Board Shed.
This is a dry show, with snacks provided by the Bean Counter.
Last year Leathan was just starting to woodshed some songs for a new record.
Now he has a whole bunch of new songs developed with the help of his stellar band.
Luscious strings, echo-soaked guitars that evoke the voice of God, were he stuck in a well, and an understated but powerhouse rhythm section.
If you’ve seen acts like Wooden Horsemen, Jasper Sloan Yip, or Bocephus King, you’ve heard these cats in action.
Leathan’s breakthrough record The Outcome of Weather landed him spots on CBC’s Arctic Air, and opening slots with acts such as Gregory Allen Isakov.
Browsing her website, Lydia Hol has quite a stacked resume considering she’s really only been seriously making music for a few years as follows.
Since the release of her debut EP, Boats, in 2012, Lydia Hol has toured the country from coast to coast, filling rooms with her songs and stories.
Lydia’s time spent living in Ireland flavours her performances with a storyteller’s honesty and charm, and her studies in English literature have helped to shape her songwriting into an insightful, and mature art.
Sharing the stage with folk legends such as Sylvia Tyson, Dar Williams, and Shari Ulrich as she did this past year, has further encouraged Hol’s place as one of Canada’s most dynamic young artists.
In 2013 Lydia was a Top 20 finalist in the Peak Performance Project, and a regional finalist in CBC’s Searchlight Contest.
In 2014 she showcased in Toronto and Kansas City, was the featured musician at The Vancouver Mayor’s Arts Awards, and curated the Acoustic Guitar Project.
The writing and recording of ‘Heading North’ was the focus of 2015, recorded at Afterlife Studios in Vancouver.
But whereas Boats was very much a solitary, stationary effort – that of a young artist writing in her quaint cabin on the Pacific coast, Heading North is a more communal collection.
The arrangements on this record are more lush and elaborate than those on its predecessor, thanks in large part to a top-tier cast of supporting players.
The list is a long one, featuring the likes of Jesse Zubot (violin), Paul Rigby (guitar, steel), and John Raham (drums/engineering).
Many of the musicians are on loan from Be Good Tanyas front-woman Frazey Ford, and helped bring that welcome collective spirit to the album.
At their core these are Hol’s songs, and embody her essence as a musician and lyricist.
On both fronts, the album captures the essence of femininity through a delicate, elegant take on folk – simultaneously subtle and sultry; sometimes vulnerable, others tenacious.
Her voice and guitar anchor a host of tasteful instrumentation that colours the tracks with tinges of everything from country to classical and beyond.
“The north is really the last frontier, the last unknown,” Hol muses, speaking to the themes of exploration and risk-taking threaded through these nine songs.
“The title track is about “throwing the tethers off and finding strength,” about moving forward into something bigger than oneself.
As for the stories she tells, both in the songs and in between them from the stage, Hol is a student of literature and skilled wordsmith. Some of those shared on Heading North are her own; others are borrowed, like “Mistress of the Track,” about Canadian jockey Ron Turcotte, and “Loneliest Word,” based on a Wordsworth poem, both which soar from her perspective.
Lydia’s communal spirit reaches beyond her own music, and into the broader music world as well, as she is passionate about promoting songwriting and community. She annually curates the Vancouver Acoustic Guitar Project, started and hosts The Yale Songwriter Sessions, a weekly songwriter’s showcase in Vancouver, and works for The Rogue Folk Club.
In 2016 she is heading to Austin TX as part of the House of Songs project.
