James Reaney
Music Editor, London Free Press
Nov 9, 2007, Blog
I'm putting this together a little later than usual — and the first
thing I want to say is that when Porkbelly Futures return to London,
you should be there. I know you weren't at the London Music Club for
their 7 p.m. Friday gig because there weren't enough of us and I would
have noticed you.
Anyway, what a great outfit.
Paul Quarrington and the other Futures write songs about Sweet Daddy
Siki, broken hearts, trains, Newfoundland disasters and just about
everything else and with his gruff voice and drummer Martin Worthy's
sweet voice and Rebecca Campbell's wailing, they have it covered
vocally.
Instrumentally, Canadian Brass guy Stuart Laughton didn't even play his
trumpet — he had it with him, I think — but he was great on harmonica,
guitar, mandolin and pedal steel. Chas Elliott bowed the bass on a tune
or two — and he plays for the TSO.
Guest guitarist Teddy Leonard of London was so hot that Quarrington
joked he thought he was in Zed Zed Top (nice to see it pronounced
properly).
Anyway, when they do come back. Go. This might have been the gig of the
year. (I showed Quarrington and Worthy my 1966 Central yearbook with
their long ago boss with Continental Drift, that London folkie Joe
Hall, as a Grade 13 grad nicknamed Yokum. They beamed. It was cool.)
London Free Press, Dec 29, 2007
James Reaney, Music Editor
Best folk/roots concert 2007
Porkbelly Futures played the London Music Club to an appreciative audience
of dozens - and were as bloody great as you'd expect a band good enough
to have somebody from the Canadian Brass playing guitars and harmonica,
the double bassist from the Toronto Symphony Orchestra bowing away and
a Governor General's Award-winning novelist supplying most of the lyrics.
And they had London's Teddy Leonard guesting on guitar.
When Porkbelly Futures come back, don't you dare miss them.
Runners-up:
Jackie Washington, Tannis Slimmon, Andrea Koziol, Slugfest, Blackie & the
Rodeo Kings (all Home County); the Kensington Hillbillies (Victoria), Frank
Ridsdale and Gerry Collins (Oxford Arms), Danny Michel and Allison Russell,
Stuart McLean (Centennial Hall). |
|
