Sirens come home to Home County
July 2007
The Sirens may be one of London’s best-known folk duos, but they don’t often perform here. If you missed their June album release concert at Aeolian Hall, there’s only one more chance to catch them live this summer — at the 34th annual Home County Folk Festival.
The Sirens, founded 10 years ago by Donna Creighton and Jo-Ann Lawton, join a long list of performers bringing live acoustic music to Victoria Park over the festival weekend.
The group hits the main stage on Saturday night with a set featuring material from their brand new release, Look Up.
Recorded over the past year, Look Up is the group’s fourth self-financed album. This is what we love to do and what we need to do,
says Lawton, explaining the need to return to the recording studio on such a regular basis.
On our journey we’ve had so many incarnations of the Sirens. The market demands that you have a product that represents where you are right now,
she says.
Look Up is the Sirens first album as a duo and their most collaborative effort to date. Before we would each write and then come in and Siren-ize it,
Creighton says. This is the first time we actually sat down and wrote songs together.
One thing that hasn’t changed is the group’s musical versatility and songwriting ability. Look Up continues the Sirens’ exploration of the wide variety of musical styles which fall within the acoustic genre.
The album opens with a bouncy ragtime number called The Fall of a Lifetime Rag and ends with the slow bluesy It’s a Good Night.
In between, the Sirens give a musical nod to Celtic ballads, traditional folk, sea shanties and down-home country. We get bored with one style of music so we actively pursue other styles,
Creighton says. It’s all about entertaining ourselves,
adds Lawton.
As members of the Borealis Recording Company family, Look Up will be distributed worldwide and be available locally at any HMV and Music World location.
Both women laugh when asked about a promotional tour. We’re taking a different approach this time,
says Creighton. What we’ve found is you don’t necessarily achieve more in that break neck, let’s-get-this-tour-going frame of mind. You just get more tired.
In fact, the Home County Folk Festival is their only scheduled appearance this summer. In addition to their main stage show, they will join other festival performers for daytime music workshops held throughout the weekend.
It’s like a mini shared concert,
Creighton says. We might do a song swap or just choose a topic. It’s really informal. You can sit down and listen to one song and then get up and go hear somebody else.
I love this festival,
adds Lawton. I think it’s just a beautiful, laid-back, family thing.
Founded in 1973, London’s Home County Folk Festival has grown into one of the largest, free folk festivals in Canada. The annual three-day event features local, regional and national folk musicians and dancers, children’s performers, an arts and crafts show and sale and a wide variety of food.
Other local favourites scheduled to appear at this year’s Home County Folk Festival are Dixie Flyers, Paul Langille and Slugfest.
A central feature of this year’s Home Country will be the Six String Nation Guitar. The guitar is made from more than 60 historical or cultural artifacts from across Canada; examples include pieces of Massey Hall’s seat number 69, a rafter from pier 21 and Pierre Elliot Trudeau’s canoe paddle. It is intended to connect people from all regions of Canada through music and sharing. As many festival artists as possible will be playing their songs on the SSNG. The public will also have the opportunity to get up close and personal
with the guitar.
The 2007 festival kicks off July 20 at 6 p.m. and runs to July 22 at 10:30 p.m. Full festival details are available at www.homecounty.ca.