With their musical artistry and enthusiasm on full display, Nick Earle and Chris Kirby, also known as Earle and Kirby, entertained an audience of approximately 70 concertgoers at Canora Composite School on October 24. The show was presented by the Canora Arts Council as part of the 2019/20 Stars for Saskatchewan Concert Series.
The Newfoundland-based duo’s acoustic blues/roots music was welcomed with enthusiastic reactions by the Canora audience, often breaking into spontaneous applause in the middle of songs.
The pair of singer/songwriters traded off taking the lead vocals on different songs throughout the evening, and effortlessly shifted back and forth between playing lead and rhythm guitar parts.
Throughout the evening, the pair paid tribute to numerous blues greats from days gone by who had influenced them musically, but also performed their own compositions.
Appropriately, Stranger Blues, an Earle composition, was the first song of the evening, complete with the line, “I’m a stranger here, I just rolled into your town.”
But after the song, Earle was quick to add, “The people are lovely here and it does feel like home.”
They followed with Kind Hearted Woman written by Robert Johnson, an American blues singer/songwriter whose landmark recordings in the 1930s have influenced generations of musicians since.
Both performers voiced their appreciation for those who attended the concert, and Earle added, “Thank you for helping us keep the blues alive.”
They performed I Can’t Be Satisfied by Muddy Waters, who is often referred to as “the father of Chicago blues” and was an important figure in the blues scene after the Second World War.
Another highlight of the evening was their rendition of Big Road Blues, written by Tommy Johnson, one of the most influential blues artists in Mississippi in the 1920s and 1930s.
Earle told the audience his connection with Kirby goes back a number of years. When Earle was only 13, one of his first paying shows was when they performed as a duo.
Throughout the evening it was apparent that, in addition to being gifted musicians, Earle and Kirby genuinely enjoy being onstage together, and also enjoy interacting with the audience.
Earle admitted that their first trip to Canora felt a bit unusual to the two Newfoundland boys.
“We were driving all day to get here and I didn’t even see one ocean,” he quipped.
They performed another Earle composition, Mess of Me, about a woman who “made a mess of me.” The song is off his first solo record Breaking New Ground.
Kirby contributed a number of his compositions to the show, including Better Not Let Me Down, which carries a message telling the people in power that they had better not let down the people they are supposed to be looking out for.
Another memorable Kirby song performed during the evening was Mary Brown, which included lines such as “She’ll keep you coming back for more,” and “This growing boy is satisfied.”
As Kirby explained it, this is a love song. It’s not about Mary Brown, but rather Mary Brown’s fried chicken.
“Mary Brown was a real person and had a fried chicken recipe,” said Kirby. “A couple of guys bought her recipe and started Mary Brown’s, a really popular restaurant back home. Let’s put it this way, if you get caught eating KFC in Newfoundland, you might end up in a ditch somewhere.”
The next performers in the series will be Megan and Amy, a classical violinist/pianist duo with roots in Saskatchewan, scheduled to perform in Canora on November 20.
On March 17, the group known as Christine Tassan et les Imposteures will bring their “special blend of Gypsy jazz and revisited cover songs” to Canora.
