Galiano Grand Central Emporium
May 1st , 2007  Canadian folk diva Sarah Noni Metzner brings her energetic melodies, soaring voice and unbridled songwriting talent to the Grand Central Emporium on Saturday, May 12th. The Chilliwack-born songstress is launching a coast-to-coast tour with material from her newest album, Daybreak Mourning, which earned her a nomination for Best Songwriter at the Canadian Folk Music Awards. Metzner has evolved from a front-line forest activist to an impassioned singer and songwriter who performs with the same drive she once brought to protests and blockades. Metzner plunged full-time into music in 2003 when Friends of Clayoquot sound hired her to tour western North America for the tenth anniversary of the Clayoquot logging protests. She was an instant hit and there's been no looking back. “My instruments are guitar and piano and lately I've been using lutes and drumbeats,” she says of her music. “When I'm playing solo it's everything from slow ballads to upbeat dance stuff.” Metzner's songs, which touch subjects from love and revolution to addiction and loss are delivered with an instrumental artistry and rich, free-flying vocals that lift audiences to their feet and, Metzner hopes, will be a force to inspire social change. “If you're committed to making change, you have to live what you believe. Music and songwriting and art are what make me feel fully alive. There's no denying that,” she says. “I get fired up doing my art, and I am inspired by others doing what makes their fire burn.” Daybreak Mourning, Metzner's second album released by Salt Spring Island's Dog My Cat Records, includes what the songwriter calls “folk blues, cabaret and jazz” although reviewers have found bluegrass, R and B and something called “riot grrrl” among its fourteen tracks. “It deals with a lot of dichotomies, dark and light, good and bad, some heavier topics with happier sounding music. The name Daybreak Mourning is meant to encompass the entirety of the music,” Metzner told me. Reviews have been effusive. What “nails the record down tight,” says one, “is the … fire and grit in her performances.” Another promises she'll “get your blood flowing.” Opening for Metzner is Ottawa songstress Tiiu Millistver, whose album Gone are the Days earned her the Beth Ferguson award, which goes to a young Ontario artist singing for social causes. In a blues-rootsy style Millistver croons to such heavy themes as a tyrannical cowboy president, as well as to lighter, more danceable grooves like Modern Day Woman, an affirmation of female independence. When these folk divas take
the stage at Grand Central Emporium at 8.30 on Saturday, May 12th,
count yourself among the lucky to witness these rising stars of the
Canadian music scene. At the next Canadian Folk Music Awards, perhaps
someone should nominate Deborah McKechnie in a “top
venue” category for continually showcasing Canada's freshest talents
in our small island community. |
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