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Vocalists combine for Feels Like Home show at Centre 64
By Mike Redfern
Two exceptional vocal soloists, backed by an outstanding quartet, will be performing in the ‘Feels Like Home’ concert on stage in the Theatre at Centre 64 on Sunday, June 16. Nelson’s Laura Landsberg and Allison Girvan have come together to harmonize their very different voices in a concert infusing progressive folk, bluegrass, and world music.
Laura Landsberg first appeared at Centre 64 back in 2016 when she performed in the Live at Studio 64 fall jazz and blues series. In reviewing that concert I stated: “Landsberg held us entranced as she explored her huge vocal range in tongue-tripping scat singing improvisations and fresh and original renditions of old favourites à la Ella Fitzgerald and Cleo Laine. Having grown up in England where her father, jazz musician Ian McDougall, played in Cleo Laine’s husband, Johnny Dankworth’s band, perhaps it’s not surprising that Laura Landsberg recaptures the style and much of the repertoire of such great female jazz artists.”
She is, however, as CBC Radio’s former host of Hot Air, Paul Grant, said: “With so many singers trying to sound like someone else, it’s a treat to hear Laura Landsberg’s fresh and original voice – she’s a natural.”
Allison Girvan is a classically trained vocalist who has been the featured soloist on recordings and in performances with the Vancouver Chamber Choir, the CBC Vancouver Orchestra, and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. She has been a studio vocalist for radio, TV, and feature films and has performed leading roles in a number of stage musicals. She is also the City of Nelson’s cultural ambassador for 2019.
These two women with two different voices, coming from two different backgrounds, have combined to cross genres and explore music that each of them loves in a coming together that, they say, ‘feels like home.’
The quartet backing Landsberg and Girvan features each of their husbands, Paul Landsberg on guitar and Don Macdonald on violin, as well as Dylan Ferris on mandolin and Rob Fahie on bass. Both Paul Landsberg and Paul Fahie will be familiar to Live at Studio 64 audiences from previous performances here, Landsberg having made several appearances Live at Studio 64. Each is a notable instrumentalist in his own right, creating a formidable line-up behind two such exceptional vocalists.
So, it’s an opportunity not to be missed as the group performs its final concert in a tour of the Kootenays sponsored by the Columbia Kootenay Cultural Alliance with funds from the Columbia Basin Trust.
Doors open at 7 for this 7:30 p.m. concert and tickets, available in advance at Centre 64 or at the door, are $20 adults, $15 students.
