Kamloops' Music in the Park is one of the cultural events in the city that really sets us apart from other cities. Every night at the Riverside Park Bandshell, we get a free 90 minute concert. Most of the time, it's a local or area act. On rare occasions, we get an international performer like Liz Stringer.
Stringer is from Australia and is touring on support of her new album All the Bridges. Her music is evocative of Joni Mitchell or Bruce Cockburn, personal and biographical, with a thoughtful acoustic guitar behind it. For this concert, she played several songs solo acoustic, which were wonderful folk songs with deep emotion behind them. She then brought out a full band, featuring fellow Australian Aurora Jane on bass and a drummer who's name I didn't catch. It was then that things kicked into a higher gear.
With a full band, Stringer plays great uptempo roots rock, reminiscent of Jr. Gone Wild or Spirit of the West. Stringer own full voice was a great compliment to the full band sound, and the live band never sounded forced. Everything seemed very natural and free flowing.
She also did nothing but original material, which is an oddity for Music in the Park. Almost always, every artist plays a cover song so the audience can sing along or at least be familiar with the music. Stringer's choice to avoid this was a bold one and it didn't detract at all from her performance.
No comments:
Post a Comment