The first concert put on by the Canora Arts Council was far from disappointing for both fans and for the council.
About 200 people attended the first concert in the Stars for Saskatchewan series, said Dorothy Korol, spokesperson for the Canora Arts Council. This number is double what 2015’s first concert of the series brought in, so it can be said to have been very successful.
As for the attendants, who were treated to a performance by Lisa Brokop, the crowd seemed to agree with Korol in its success, singing and dancing along with the 20 songs in Brokop’s set and applauding hard enough to prompt one encore song.
When introducing Brokop to the stage, Ken Rolheiser made a joke regarding a cowboy who has his horse stolen and had to walk home and insisted that the crowd “will not be disappointed even if you have to walk home.”
The performance, which was based on Brokop’s CD The Patsy Cline Project, used multimedia presentations to add to the experience. Beginning the set was a video of Patsy Cline performing a song, before introducing the next song. The video was cut off just as she announced her next song, the lights on stage came up, and Brokop and her bandmates began playing San Antonio Rose.
Brokop’s band included herself on vocals and guitar, Darren Savard on guitar and backing vocals, Carly Mekillip on piano and backing vocals and Darcy Johnstone on cello and backing vocals. After the song, Brokop welcomed the crowd, and spoke about how excited she was to be in Canora.
“It’s an honour to be up here, singing these classic songs,” she said, before quickly moving into her next songs, which were covers of Walkin’ After Midnight and I Fall to Pieces. Each song was accompanied by a slideshow of pictures of Patsy Cline.
For The Patsy Cline Project, Brokop not only wanted to perform her own takes on Cline’s classic songs, but also wished to add in her own songs that she felt fit the project. When researching, she came across a quote from Dotty West, regarding Cline and her husband, Charles. When asked about how often the couple fought, West said, “You knew that Patsy was gonna win.” Brokop read that quote and felt it connected well with one of her songs, Ain’t Enough Roses.
Following that performance were a few more of Cline’s hits, including Your Cheatin’ Heart, She’s Got You and Strange.
Brokop then encouraged the audience to clap along with some of her own songs, including How Do I Let Go and Wildflower.
After a short intermission, in which the Canora Arts Council sold Lisa Brokop’s CDs and provided coffee for the audience, Brokop opened the second half of the set with her song A Voice in Time, followed by Cline’s hits Lovesick Blues and Back in Baby’s Arms.
Her next song was her effort to write as if she was in Cline’s era, titled Oh Careless Me. Another was specially written for her seven-year-old daughter Ivy. The image of her putting on hot pink boots and jumping around in puddles prompted Brokop to write Puddle Jumpin’.
The next classic Cline hits were Crazy and Blue Moon of Kentucky, followed by a homage to Nashville by Brokop titled Band in the Window. Brokop said she thanked everyone for sharing in the celebration of old country music before performing the last song of her set and one of the last recordings Cline ever made, Sweet Dreams.
Brokop finished her set to a standing ovation and calls of “encore.” When she relented, she played an acoustic version of Tennessee Waltz.
After the performance, Brokop took time to meet with the audience members, sign autographs, and take pictures. She said it was “awesome” to be performing for Canora residents.
“I loved to see the sense of nostalgia when they recognized songs, and it made me happy to see them even enjoying some of my own songs.”
When talking about The Patsy Cline Project, she said the biggest challenge was choosing which of Cline’s classic songs to perform when there’s so many. She said she most enjoyed writing new songs to fit into the performance.
Brokop and her band will be travelling to Preeceville and Biggar before moving towards Alberta for The Patsy Cline Project tour.
