{"id":2771,"date":"2012-04-04T10:54:45","date_gmt":"2012-04-04T15:54:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=2771"},"modified":"2012-04-04T10:54:45","modified_gmt":"2012-04-04T15:54:45","slug":"tonight-tomorrow-john-southworth-and-andrew-downing-take-cabaret-into-some-deep-dark-woods-with-easterween","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2012\/04\/04\/tonight-tomorrow-john-southworth-and-andrew-downing-take-cabaret-into-some-deep-dark-woods-with-easterween\/","title":{"rendered":"Tonight & tomorrow: John Southworth and Andrew Downing take cabaret into some deep, dark woods with Easterween"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Andrew Downing and John Southworth present a live show based on their new album, Easterween<\/em>, tonight and tomorrow at the Lower Ossington Theatre (Emma Lee photo).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Pop people call it a concept album, where a common thread runs through a series of songs. The classical world calls it a song cycle. But I think the most appropriate description for Easterween<\/em>, a collaboration between singer-singwriter John Southworth and string player Andrew Downing, is Gothic Musical Monologues.<\/p>\n

Or maybe it’s best to forget any sort of label altogether in trying to appreciate Southworth’s rough-hewn vocals underpinned by knobby-textured sounds from a seven-piece band of violin, cello (wielded by Downing), double bass, clarinet, guitar, trumpet and trombone.<\/p>\n

The result is a dark, almost sinister sound that’s part klezmer, part Weimer-era cabaret, part acid trip in the basement of a Transylvanian pub sometime between witching hour and a sunny spring morning.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The musico-poetic journey on this 12-track album begins with “Nip It in the Bud,” where Southworth’s lyrics introduce us to a rural-Pennsylvanian Amish boy running away to the big city and hooking up with a sweet Hasidic girl. The two, who have a penchant for talking to urban faeries, go off on a sort of easter egg hunt\/search for the Holy grail of a lost Romantic Ethos.<\/p>\n

By the time we get to the closing song, “Easterween:”<\/p>\n

“Pennsylvania is awash with the songs of young Werthers
\nyou can hear them in Bay City and in Edmonton, Alberta…”<\/p>\n

There’s a cute, silly, compelling wonkiness to the whole enterprise that looses a little bit of steam in the sameness of the overall sound and textures.<\/p>\n

I’m willing to bet that the live shows Southworth and Downing have organized tonight and tomorrow at the Lower Ossington Theatre will be more fun, thanks to some extra multimedia ingredients.<\/p>\n

The boys have prepared a full website<\/a> containing far more information than anyone would ever have thought necessary. For tickets, click here<\/a>. To get the CD, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And here’s “Nip It in the Bud”:<\/p>\n