Music Nova Scotia shows province's pool of talent

The conference is an effort to bring together artists, companies, producers, those who operate performance venues and representatives of government, in order to strengthen the music industry in Nova Scotia. Chris Ball, who runs the Astor in Liverpool was there, having earned a nomination in the venue of the year category.

In many ways, the most valuable part of Music Week is in the way it introduces musicians to other people in the industry. One session had two dozen individuals or groups making five-minute pitches to the people who run the theatres and concert halls in the province. Some of the performers simply talked about themselves for five minutes, while others gave demonstrations of their music.

We were tickled, for instance, to see the Ghost Bees, 23-year-old twin sisters Romy and Sari Lightman, from Halifax, who climbed up on the stage for their five minutes. They talked first about a tea they invented, then, sitting cross-legged across from each other, sang a really good song in a genre they described as spooky folk. After, they brewed some of their tea and invited anyone from the audience to stop by and have a cup.

We caught the Ghost Bees later, at a pub called The Dock, in New Glasgow, when they sang a whole set. (The Dock is in an old stone house built in 1845 and, like the Knot in Lunenburg, takes its food very seriously. I fondly harken back to spicy blackened Creole haddock and garlic red potatoes on a bed of tomato puree.)

Music Week is also a boon to the public. People will remember that performers were constantly putting on shows around Liverpool and White Point during music weeks over the past two years here. In New Glasgow, pubs, dance halls and the big Glasgow Square Theatre were put into service.

The idea was to make it to as many performances as possible during the days of the festival. You would hunker down with a ginger ale or a beer while shows were on, watching some of the province's incredible talent on display. As in Liverpool, people moved from venue to venue in order to catch their favourite acts.

We saw two rock bands at the Glasgow Square Theatre. We had been intrigued by the description given during the five-minute promotions and made sure we saw a group called I See Rowboats, and one called Shelter with Thieves. The first, I See Rowboats, had a keyboard player named Lisa Lipton who injected some melody into the music, though it was hard to hear because the band was so loud. Shelter with Thieves was popular with the teenagers in the theatre, but it produced a solid wall of sound, and it was only when we were a block away from the theatre that we could make out the music being played. Kleenex in the ears didn't even help.

A trio of music industry people from Iceland gave a workshop. Despite their faltering economy, Icelandic people still have what is recognized internationally as a vibrant music scene, something we caught a bit of when we went to a late-night jazz club in Reykjavik one time. The Icelandic visitors, in turn, were very impressed with the music scene in Nova Scotia, and described it as much like theirs.

People in Queens County are fortunate in having a variety of places to see great music. The Astor had Guy Davis there last week, and on November 22 will present Valdy in concert. Just down the coast, the Pearl Theatre in Lunenburg had Charlie A'Court and the Hupman Brothers on the weekend, and will have Connie Kaldor in December.

On another topic, we were really pleased that the Region of Queens has been replacing the damaged signs leading to our communities. Those signs, which contain a logo relevant to each place, were a millennium project and have been a feature admired by tourists coming to our county. I'm told that Mayor John Leefe has taken a personal interest in making certain that the signs are kept in place.

The signs up here lasted for eight years before new ones had to be put up. Now, it appears that Halloween vandals have broken two of the new signs. That silly destructiveness not only costs taxpayers money, but harms the images our communities have in the minds of visitors.

Tom Sheppard can be reached at twsheppard@gmail.com