Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out!, Kay Meek Centre, Oct. 2 and 3.
The collaborative projects that Capilano University's Fiona Black and musician Steve Dawson dream up keep on getting bigger and bigger.
Their latest, a live reworking of the Rolling Stones album Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out!, featured almost a dozen vocalists taking turns singing with Dawson and his Black Hen Band during a two-night stand at West Vancouver's Kay Meek Centre last weekend.
The first set featured the album in its entirety while the second set was made up of favourite Stones songs from the Ya-Ya's era chosen by the performers.
Dawson opened Saturday night himself with "Love in Vain," a Robert Johnson blues song that Keith Richards originally learned hanging out with Gram Parsons. On Let It Bleed, Ry Cooder's mandolin gave the Stones' version a Yank Rachell Tennessee country blues feel which the Black Hen's Jeremy Holmes beautifully duplicated in concert. Dawson spent most of the rest of the evening stage left directing the proceedings on the Kay Meek Centre stage which was loaded with talent wherever you looked.
Even though he grew up within spitting distance of Edmonton's Whitemud Freeway, Rich Hope - equal parts Jagger, Richards and Joe Strummer - was born to play music from the Stones' book. Having Hope close out the first set with "Street Fighting Man" and do "Sway" in the second was a no-brainer. Other performers were not as obviously set in Stone: Ndidi Onukwulu tackled "Midnight Rambler" like a young Billie Holiday giving what she called the "pervy" lyrics another dimension. Her intense rendition of "Gimme Shelter" early on in the second set was a jaw-dropping, show-stopping performance. Dustin Bentall had the unenviable task of going on after Onukwulu in both sets Saturday night but acquitted himself well with the rock'n'roll rawness of "Carol" and "Jigsaw Puzzle."
Bentall's partner Kendel Carson didn't sing herself but was an integral part of the evening weaving her violin in and out of songs for much of the evening. Shawn Hall (of The Harpoonist the Axe Murderer) sang one solo and backed up others with his blues harp. Craig Northey did two songs himself and stuck around to help out on guitar and vocals.
Shaun Verrault (who only performed on Saturday night) has actually opened for the Stones with his band Wide Mouth Mason and had a couple of hilarious stories about almost losing his shirt to Charlie Watts and almost locking lips with Mick Jagger. Those brushes with celebrity served as intros for his takes on "Sympathy for the Devil" and "Prodigal Son." (A full set list from Saturday's show and who performed what appears at the end of this article).
Following the weekend extravaganza Fiona Black talked to the News about how the production was put together.
North Shore News: You and Steve Dawson have collaborated on several projects over the years - what are the logistics of putting together a massive show like Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out?
Fiona Black: Months and months of planning. Steve does a lot of his work at his home in Nashville to get the tunes ready and a lot of the collaboration between artists is done remotely of course. We were extremely happy with the strong positive response from the artists. You could tell on stage they revere Steve Dawson. He is no longer living in Vancouver so it was a rare opportunity to work with him. It also meant getting the right mix of artists that would make it an artistic success. We want to work with a variety of artists and we want to work with artists who are open to being creative. It was a re-imagining of the Rolling Stones and we really wanted these nights to be a tribute to the great talent on the West Coast. We had one artist (Roxanne Potvin) from Montreal but by and large the rest were local.
North Shore News: What a great showcase for Vancouver's music community.
Fiona Black: I think so. The Stones were like a backdrop, the catalyst for a reason to get together. The artists were involved with picking the repertoire. We did the album Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out! in its entirety for the first set and Steve would make suggestions as to what they would do from that album. It was a little bit of juggling making sure everybody was happy with their choices but Steve gave them the parameters to choose from three records from the time period - Let It Bleed, Beggars Banquet and Sticky Fingers. They all chose their own songs from those three records so we had what we felt was the golden era of the Stones. Set two was like an extension and it ended up being a super-epic show of over three hours long but everyone hung in there and seemed to enjoy it. I sure didn't have anyone complaining about the length. If anything people were cheering for more encores. For people who were there for both nights the shows were subtly different - just the fact they got to do a second show they were tighter and looser at the same time on night number two, if that makes sense. The first night was really fun and there was a surprise element. Colin James was our surprise guest - it was wonderful to have him there for both nights. I spoke with Colin after and he said it was great to be a sideman. He doesn't get to do that. He loved just being on stage and he got to play his mandolin which he rarely plays on his own material. And he got to reconnect with old friends. He's good friends with Craig Northey and Steve Dawson. It became a real reunion and because we had the luxury of doing two nights together we got to spend a lot of time together. It was very special to see the camaraderie get stronger and stronger because we basically had three days together. We rehearsed everything on Thursday so this was all put together in one day.
North Shore News: This was your first thematic production with Steve and his band at Kay Meek. How did that work out?
Fiona Black: Beautiful. We loved the theatre, the crew there are wonderful to work with, the sound in that room is really nice. They've got a beautiful stage, it was luxurious to have that much space. It accommodated the show really well.
North Shore News: You've done several thematic shows with Steve over the years. How did those get started?
Fiona Black: I think the Mississippi Sheiks was our first big production like that and it actually inspired us to do the Black Hen Music Series at the Electric Owl which had a nice run. We invited a different guest for a number of shows. I think we did maybe 10 to 12 of those performances together before he left for Nashville. Our very first guest artist in that series was Colin James and so it was Steve Dawson and the Black Hen Band with Colin James. It put that series at the Electric Owl, which was still a pretty new venue at that point, really on the map. 'Wow, Colin's playing a little club that holds 300 people.' We gave parameters to the guest artists that it was a collaboration between them and Steve and the Black Hen Band - 'We're going to do a different take on your favourite covers. Pick those songs you've always wanted to do but don't do in your normal repertoire.' Colin loved that. I think for artists it gives them a new challenge. Jill Barber came in and did a night of country classics. She did Hank Williams and Johnny Cash and Patsy Cline and nailed that material.
North Shore News: What was different about Ya-Ya's from the previous productions?
Fiona Black: For the Ya-Ya's we had the luxury of two nights. We talked about how this would be so good to bring on the road across Canada. The chemistry between everyone was really good. The vibe was great, everybody was having a blast. Everyone was sending congratulations and thank-yous after the show. Roxanne Potvin was like, 'Can't we do this every weekend.' She came all the way from Montreal. She's worked with Steve before. It's a testament to how much all these artists respect Steve as a musician and as a producer and their trust of him that they would just dive in: 'If Steve's involved it's going to be great. We're in.'
North Shore News: What's next? There were four albums (The Band's eponymous second album; David Bowie -The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars; The Beatles -Rubber Soul; The Byrds -Sweetheart of the Rodeo) in the lobby people could vote on as possible options for next year.
Fiona Black: All four albums got quite a lot of votes. It was great to have the input from the audience and it created this really nice buzz in the lobby. We have great momentum and we want to keep this going. We're not sure where we'll go with it. I'm not at liberty to say because it's so preliminary. People made other suggestions too but I think we'll keep it to those four choices.
North Shore News: Backtracking a bit, Steve said on stage originally you were thinking of a Beatles album this year instead of the Stones. Why did you switch it?
Fiona Black: We were thinking of Revolver. We were both onboard. When Steve delved into the material for Revolver it was quite complex more than he imagined. So when I went to visit him in Nashville it was part of our agenda that we were going to sit down and discuss Revolver and just all the logistics of pulling it off. Steve started the conversation, 'I'm not sure we should do Revolver 'and I'm like, 'What?' because I thought it was a good choice.So then we started talking about other bands. The Band was mentioned at that point but the conversation came around to the Rolling Stones. I threw out Exile on Main St. and he said, 'It's a double record it might be a bit long.' In the end it probably wouldn't have been given that we did two full sets.It was Steve's suggestion to do Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out! I love that idea that we're actually honouring a live record with a live performance. It seemed to fit and we loved the repertoire.We felt we could augment the record with more from that era and I think it worked out really well. The repertoire is all over the map for the Stones and it's really fun music to perform live. Steve works hard to be creative with the arrangements so you're getting a fresh take on this classic material.
Ya-Ya's set list
Ya Ya's Oct. 3, Night Number 2:
Set 1 - Ya Ya's
1) Love In Vain (horns) - Steve Dawson
2) Honky Tonk Women (horns) - Barney Bentall
3) Little Queenie (horns) - Colleen Rennison
4) Jumpin' Jack Flash - Ralph Shaw
5) Midnight Rambler - Ndidi Onukwulu
6) Carol - Dustin Bentall
7) Stray Cat Blues - Colin James
8) Under My Thumb (horns) - Roxanne Potvin
9) Live With Me (horns) - Craig Northey
10) Sympathy (horns) - Shaun Verrault
11) Street Fighting Man (horns) - Rich Hope
Set 2 - Not Ya Ya's
1) Monkey Man - Craig Northey
2) Sway - Rich Hope
3) You Gotta Move - Steve Dawson
4) Gimme Shelter (horns) - Ndidi Onukwulu
5) Jigsaw Puzzle (horns) - Dustin Bentall
6) No Expectations - Colleen Rennison
7) Prodigal Son - Shaun Verrault
8) Can't You Hear Me Knockin' - Roxanne Potvin
9) Let It Bleed (horns) - Ralph Shaw
10) Bitch (horns) - Shaun Hall
11) You Got the Silver - Colin James
12) Salt Of The Earth - Barney Bentall
Finale: You Can't Always Get What You Want
