April 27, 2015 - Northern News Services

opinions
A4 NEWS/NORTH NWT, Monday, April 27, 2015
NWT News/North archives
Thank you to Betty Tetso and Leslie
Baton for identifying William Sewi, left,
in last week's archive photo.
APRIL 1997
Do you recognize the people in this photo? To respond, e-mail editorial@nnsl.com, fax (867) 873-8507 or call (867) 873-4031.
Sahara Jane's Lonesome Sky
Northern News Services
Friends, one of the best things about doing a residency at
the Banff Centre for the Arts is the chance to get involved in
all of the different kinds of arts the place has to offer.
While I wrote and painted there were a number of concerts
put on by a rather large group of world musicians mainly featuring the exotic sounds of Iran.
Of these, Sahara Jane treated the crowd with some selections, both solo and in a vocal backing group, complete in
Persian.
Meeting her afterwards I was struck by the sheer calibre of
our total Canadian culture, when along with her own CD she
handed me one she's recorded with her two sisters, one song
all in Chinese!
As with the fiddle in Northern music we often get the
end result of a musical drift, from the Orkney Islands off the
coast of Scotland, for instance. With Sahara Jane's music,
these include varied tastes of the very roots of Acadian music,
which now reaches all the way to the down-home Cajun soul
of New Orleans.
Lonesome Sky also features the singular and great stage
presence of this Nova Scotian, with the sweet angelic voice.
These are the kinds of sounds you just want to kick off
your shoes to mentally go on a long, leisurely stroll along the
sandy beach of your choice. Starting with lines like "can I
have just a little piece of this perfect starry night" to add an
A MOUNTAIN View
Antoine Mountain is a Dene artist
and writer originally from Radilih Koe'/
Fort Good Hope. He can be reached
at www.amountainarts.com.
avowed love for the outdoors.
Set in the heart of the Rocky Mountains, Banff comes with
the occasional sounds of a distant train in and back to places
of your wandering imagination, as is this gentle lady's music,
with just a touch of steel wheels within.
Slow Train puts you right on a moving adventure with
rhythm caught by guitar and snare drums, swirling violins
and a spry ole soul name of Hobo Bill for company.
Her musical maturity shows in the way Your Heart just
kind of drifts along, with an oboe dreamily winding its way
through words come straight from an inner hope for complete
love.
In the bittersweet Country Songs, an earthy vocal traces
her musical roots recalling for a married sister a time once
"being cool".
Perhaps truest in thought of the Banff Centre for the
Arts, Sahara Jane's True Love and World Peace is a sobering
reminder that these higher ambitions are an ideal between two
people, best to "start in your eyes" and "I'll take my dream
world if you'll live it with me".
One of my very favorites for its catchy 30's melody line,
How Can it Be perfectly matches a whimsical woodwind with
lovely vocals and a merry cymbaled drum line to carry you
along life's sometimes troubled spots.
A personal After Your Gone shows Sahara is not afraid of
putting her own feelings on the line, a sure sign of an artist
willing to live and learn, to pass along a true-to-life talent.
In the end we are treated to genuine blues influence. One
thing many people don't realize is that Canada's east coast
heroically played a good part in the Freedom Movement,
with a human railroad running slaves out and away from an
oppressive American South.
Of course these now come with a rich musical legacy all
their own for the picking, clear in evidence in the title song,
Lonesome Sky, hauntingly wrought in a simple lead vocal and
moving choral backing, a divine, echoing promise.
One Track Mind's intricate guitar riffs take us on out,
again on the Sahara Jane Line, to destinations precious and
majestic.
Mahsi, thank you.