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Songs of Nick Drake
Lucinda Williams
vocals
Brad Mehldau
pianob.1970
Lizz Wright
vocalsb.1980
Andy Bey
piano1939 - 2025
Charlie Hunter
guitarb.1967
Norah Jones
pianob.1979
Luke Jackson, British born Toronto-based singer-songwriter, has paid tribute to Drake over the course of the last 15 years in a show known as the Songs of Nick Drake. For the last two years, the show has been performed at Hugh's Room Live, perhaps the best live music venue in Toronto. It offers great seating, sight-lines, fine acoustics, and excellent food. It also has a quiet policy during the performance. I caught the second of two nights, which was very close to a sold-out performance. The first set featured songs off Drake's second and third albums, Bryter Later and Pink Moon, as well as songs that were released posthumously. Bryter Later is Drake's most popular and accessible album. Pink Moon is a starkly beautiful, but bleak album that features Drake on guitar and vocals. The second set was devoted entirely to Five Leafs Left, which was released in 1969 and is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary. Much of Drake's music is rather spare, but there are beautiful string arrangements by the late Robert Kirby on his first two albums. Kirby was a friend and collaborator to Luke Jackson. He provided some of the string arrangements that were used in this concert. In general, the arrangements were exceptionally well done. The string section included Alex Cheung and Sahra Featherstone on violin. Featherstone also played harp, flute, and sang beautifully on "Clothes of Sand," a lovely enigmatic song that was released on a posthumous recording, Time of No Reply. Johan Lotter played viola, and Wendy Solomon was featured on cello as well as vocals. Maury Lafoya on bass had the dual role of contributing to the string section and as part of the rhythm section with drummer Mark Mariash. Flautist Andrea Kovats and Liz Eccleston on oboe were used to excellent effect on certain songs. Kovats was the featured soloist on a very moving version of Sunday (one of the few instrumentals in the Drake catalog) and one of the highlights of this great evening of music.
The show featured a stellar cast of singer/instrumentalists, including singer/songwriter and noted jazz pianist
Elizabeth Shepherd
keyboards
Leonard Cohen
vocals1934 - 2016
Tags
In Pictures
Dave Kaufman
Canada
Toronto
Nick Drake
Lucinda Williams
Meshell Ndegeocello
Calexico
brad mehldau
Lizz Wright
Andy Bey
Hugh's Room Live
Elizabeth Shepherd
Leonard Cohen
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