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This article was published 23/11/2017 (3250 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Barenaked Ladies

For the second time this year, beloved Canadian musicians the Barenaked Ladies (BNL) are on the heels of an album release.

In April, the quartet dropped Ladies and Gentlemen: Barenaked Ladies and The Persuasions — an album of some of BNL’s favourite tracks from their back catalogue reimagined with the help of a cappella soul group the Persuasions — and now this month, they’re back with an all-new collection of tracks, Fake Nudes.

The title is a play on the long-running joke that no, the Barenaked Ladies are not, in fact, a group of nude women, as well as the oft-repeated, Trump-favoured phrase, “fake news.”

Politics don’t play a huge role on this record, though. Songwriter, keyboardist and vocalist Kevin Hearn explains only two of the album’s 14 tracks — Lookin’ Up and Invisible Fence — lean in that direction.

“Lookin’ Up… is sort of a counterpoint to the narrative of doom and gloom and the political climate everyone is obsessed with right now, and rightly so, it’s unbelievable and awful. But it’s easy to be paralyzed by that and I think Ed (Robertson’s) point in the song is to say there’s still great people in the world with great things happening in the world and we can’t lose hope. We have to keep looking up, keep working hard at trying to make this world a better place,” Hearn says.

“The other song is Invisible Fence. I’m very turned off by things Donald Trump did during his campaign and during his presidency that seek to divide people and stir up feelings of racism and even hatred and this song isn’t necessarily about Trump, it’s more just about racism and trying to bring down those mental barriers that keep us from having better relationships with people.”

Fake Nudes marks Hearn’s largest contribution to a BNL record to date, with three Robertson co-writes and a whopping six tracks penned solo, including the stunning Flying Dreams. Hearn wrote the song for his daughter, Havana, and it features throat singing performed by Tanya Tagaq, a friend whom Hearn has been hoping to collaborate with for some time.

“Flying Dreams is about my daughter, Havana, who is a special needs child, and I’ve always wanted to write a song for her based on our relationship and my experience for her and it turned into that song, so that’s a very personal song for me,” explains Hearn.

“While we were making the record, Tanya came over and it was a day I had Havana over… and they really connected, and I said, ‘Well I’m working on a song for Havana right now so maybe this is a good opportunity for us to collaborate.’ So she came the next day to sing on it.

“She made a few people cry, including myself on a number of occasions,” Hearn laughs. “And she told me (her throat singing) was based on a love song, sort of a traditional love song.”

The Barenaked Ladies were in Winnipeg not long ago, filling the Sunday night headlining slot on the main stage at the Winnipeg Folk Festival (”It was wonderful — we hadn’t done that in a long time and it was great to play for such a large, fun group of people. There was a lady eating a sandwich at the side of the stage that distracted me, I remember that,” Hearn laughs.), but they have included a Winnipeg stop on their current tour in support of Fake Nudes as well, so you can catch them Saturday, Nov. 25, at Burton Cummings Theatre at 7:30 p.m.

Tickets range in price from $35 to $149 and are available at Ticketmaster.

— Erin Lebar

 

Camerata Nova: Snow Angel

Is there any sound more Christmasy than the ethereal voices of children raised in song? Get your fill of that holiday feeling at Camerata Nova’s holiday concert, which features 100 kids from the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra’s Sistema program performing Snow Angel by Canadian composer Sarah Quartel. The five-movement work exploring the love and strength children provide in a troubled world also features Winnipeg cello prodigy Juliana Moroz, 15.

Conducted by Victor Pankratz, the local choir known for performing avant-garde pieces, Indigenous compositions and early music will be focusing on Canadian works to tie in with Canada 150 celebrations. Seven of the nine composers are Canadian on a program that includes early French-Canadian carols and a new work by artistic director Andrew Balfour. His Polar Suite of Santa songs will be sung in Inuktitut.

The choir will also present two new versions of O Magnum Myseterium (O Great Mystery), an early church chant that recounts the nativity scene from the animals’ perspective.

In the giving spirit of the season, donations to Winnipeg Harvest will be gratefully accepted.

Snow Angel takes place at Crescent Fort Rouge United Church Saturday, Nov. 25, at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, Nov. 26, at 3 p.m. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students; children 12 and under get in free.

— Jill Wilson

 

Lerner Moguilevsky Duo

Rady JCC TD Bank Tarbut: Festival of Jewish Culture

Direct from Buenos Aires, Argentina’s Lerner Moguilevsky Duo are here to perform a musical melting pot of Jewish Klezmer (a musical tradition of the Ashkenazi Jews of Eastern Europe), Argentinian folk music, jazz, tango and other world influences. The show, scheduled to take place Saturday, Nov. 25, at 8 p.m. at the West End Cultural Centre (WECC), is part of the eighth annual Rady JCC TD Bank Tarbut: Festival of Arts and Culture, which showcases Jewish music, film and authors.

Born to Russian and Polish grandparents who immigrated to Argentina at the turn of the 20th century, multi-instrumentalists César Lerner (piano, accordion, percussion) and Marcel Moguilevsky (vocals, clarinet, sax, wooden flutes, harmonica) have been performing for crowds around the globe since first joining forces 30 years ago. Known for their infectious, high-energy shows, where they regularly trade instruments and improvise arrangements of traditional Klezmer and Yiddish tunes on a peso, the duo has received critical acclaim for their albums, including Klezmer en Buenos Aires, Basavilbaso and Shtil. On his blog The Klezmer Shack, longtime Klezmer guru Ari Davidow praises the musicians: “These multi-instrumentalists are a pleasure to hear, simply because the music is so good.”

“This year I wanted to showcase Jewish musicians and Jewish music from around the world — to shake the concept that Jewish music comes in one form,” says festival producer Karla Berbrayer, who has helmed the annual 10-day event since it morphed from her prior Israeli Concert Series in 2010. This year’s bill also includes concerts featuring Ethiopian Israeli singer Aveva and a tribute evening on Nov. 23 celebrating the 100th anniversary of American maestro Leonard Bernstein’s birth. “Each concert has very different music, resonating with the sounds of the community from which the artist comes. It’s all world music with a Jewish slant.”

Also included with the price of admission for the Saturday show is an Argentinian-flavoured post-show reception. And if you’re skittish about parking late at night, a special “Fiesta bus” ($5 round trip) takes you from the Rady Jewish Community Centre Centre, 123 Doncaster St. to the WECC and back. Tickets are $25 to $45 at radyjcc.net/ticketcentral.cfm. For further information, call 204-477-7510 or visit radyjcc.com.

— Holly Harris

Believe

It’ll begin to look — and sound — a lot like Christmas this weekend when Believe, an all-new holiday production by Dallas, Texas-based circus entertainers Cirque Musica, rolls into Bell MTS Place. Containing an assortment of hijinks and unvarying circus routines — such as the highly anticipated mid-air tricks and trapeze performances by high-flying acrobats and aerialists — the family-friendly festive production gets underway Friday, Nov 24, at 7:30 p.m. and will also feature an array of symphonic holiday hits performed by the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra.

In a press release about the show, promoters say Cirque Musica Holiday “blends the spell-binding grace and daredevil athleticism of today’s greatest circus performers with the sensory majesty of the greatest holiday music of all time.”

Tickets start at $22.50 and are available at ticketmaster.ca, Bell MTS Place Box Office or by calling 1-855-985-5000.

For more information, go to cirquemusica.com.

— Leesa Dahl