First Impressions Theatre is presenting two fundraising concerts this weekend at the Deep Cove Shaw Theatre. Tonight, Friday, Jan. 30, The Paperboys will take the stage, and tomorrow, Saturday, Jan. 31, Babe Gurr will perform as part of an eightpiece band. Doors: 7:30 p.m. Show: 8 p.m. Proceeds will support the theatre company. Tickets: $30, phone 604-929-9456 or visit firstimpressionstheatre.com.
The cover of award-winning singer-songwriter Babe Gurr's new EP features a telling photo of her on the side of a New Mexico road, guitar case in hand.
Its title, Hearts up to the Sun, references a song on the five-track release, inspired by her attraction to hot and sunny places.
"I'm really drawn to places that have a lot of sunshine. Although I love B.C., it's beautiful, but the rain does get to me. I just think the sun is so healing and inspirational," she says, Gurr is set to perform "Throw Our Hearts Up To The Sun," and a number of other works from her new record and back catalogue, supported by a seven-piece band Saturday at the Deep Cove Shaw Theatre. The performance is the second of two-nights of music being presented by First Impressions Theatre at the North Vancouver venue this weekend. Proceeds from both shows, including tonight's concert featuring The Paperboys, will support the non-profit theatre company, launched in 1983.
Gurr is pleased to be lending her talent to the cause, something she's done a number of times over the years.
"I love live theatre," the East Vancouver-based recording artist says. Gurr explains she's long been an avid theatre-goer, including locally, on trips to New York City, as well as when she lived in London, England for a time.
"I just know, being an artist myself, how difficult it is to get funding and to get your stuff out there. So I'm happy to support a theatre that's working hard to get their productions on.. .. It's nice to be able to help out with that," she says.
The fundraising show is doubling as the official release event for Gurr's Hearts up to the Sun. Musicians sharing the stage with her include David Sinclair, Tom Neville, Nick Apivor, Liam MacDonald, Steve Hilliam, Malcolm Aiken and Darren Parris. While she's played a few summer festivals as part of this particular eight-piece lineup, more often she performs as part of a smaller group, ranging from a three-to a five-piece.
"I love this big band. It's such a fun thing to have this big wall of sound behind you," says Gurr.
As her new record features horn arrangements, having sax and trumpet players on hand are helpful in bringing her new songs to the stage.
Hearts up to the Sun follows Gurr's previous album, SideDish. Meant to be a one-off album, for SideDish she explored a more world music-inspired direction. The concept was the result of positive audience reaction garnered from her performance of an Italian song rounded out by the addition of rhythms she'd been exposed to through travel. The resulting work incorporates Italian, Spanish, Middle-Eastern, Brazilian and New Orleans sounds.
"When I decided to do another CD, I still had a little bit of the world influence going on in there for sure, but I probably went back a little more to my roots," she says.
What exactly those roots are, however, is a bit of a challenge to peg. A selfdescribed "musical mutt," Gurr's music is a blend of a variety of genres, ranging from roots music, to jazz and RB, to name a few.
"The reason I do such a wide swath is because for me it's more interesting. .. as a writer but also I think as an audience member to hear something that isn't all specifically locked into one genre because it tends to, for me, get a little boring. Even though there's definitely a common thread that runs through all these tunes - and I guess that's me being the writer and the singer and then therefore my melodies, probably, there's a lot of continuity - but in choices of rhythms and instrumentation, that's where it varies," she says.
In terms of where her lyrical content is derived, Gurr tends to look to her musical compositions.
"When I start to write a tune, whatever comes up with the musicality of it first in terms of the melody and the chord progression, tends to be what the lyrics (are) going to be about," she says.
Once the theme or premise of the song is firmed up, she comes up with a verbal hook, or searches for something appropriate in a book of phrases she maintains, adding the odd passage here and there, or jotting down something she hears in conversation with others, on the news or in a film. She workshops the lyrics from there.
Once Gurr feels a song is complete, she's quick to throw it into her live sets, something she plans to do tomorrow night.
In addition to this weekend's show at the Deep Cove Shaw Theatre, Gurr is also slated to perform at CelticFest Vancouver 2015. She'll perform March 7 at the Imperial for a Tribute to the Pogues.
Gurr plans to play "And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda," a song covered by the seminal Celtic punk band that she herself performed back in her 20s when she was, for a brief time, in a Celtic duo.
"I like changing it up," she says.
