Sirens sound at Sarnia pub

Band brings eclectic sound to Sarnia

Paul Morden, Sarnia Observer

June 8, 2002

The list goes from Ella Fitzgerald to Bjork when the members of the trio Sirens talk about their musical influences. Saturday, the London-based group with the eclectic tastes plays Sarnia’s Paddy Flaherty’s Restaurant and Pub.

It’s not typical, Donna Creighton said about the original music she records and performs alongside Jo-Ann Lawton and Amber Cunningham. We’re compared often to a cross between Manhattan Transfer and The Andrews Sisters, but with guitars. Sirens first came together about five years ago. Since then, it has released a pair of albums, including 1999’s Smilin’. That record was picked up by the Canadian folk label Borealis.

The band began when Lawton was putting together a Christmas show. I had been bothering Jo-Ann to do some work with her for a couple of months, Creighton said. She said, How about you come and try this concert. They got together and the first rehearsal went so well they decided to keep going.

There were some personnel changes along the way, with Cunningham joining up most recently. We’re in the folk genre but it’s more of a folk fusion because we do jazz, blues, swing, Celtic, all fused together, Creighton said. What fuses it all together, she added, are the group’s densely-textured three-part harmony.

Lawton grew up in Burlington and came to London to study visual arts at Fanshawe College. She plays guitar, bass and bodhran. Creighton, from Bancroft, studied English, drama and education at the University of Western Ontario. She plays guitar, recorder, tin whistle, bass, bodhran and percussion. Cunningham is a London native studying with the Royal Conservatory of Music.

The variety of musical genres in the group came about naturally. I grew up in a family where my mom was a classical pianist, Creighton said. My brothers and sisters were all older than me and we had The Beatles on one floor, Led Zeppelin an another floor and then my dad (a folk music fan) he’d be listening to fiddle music and The Carter Family in the basement and my mom would be practicing Chopin.

Lawton grew up listening to her parents’ 1940s musical soundtracks and the likes of Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra. Her writing still reflects those influences, Creighton said.

Cunningham, the youngest in the trio, listens to Bjork and Ani DeFranco but she’s also a classically trained vocalist who likes Rogers and Hart. So, she has a vast array of things coming at her, Creighton said. We try to incorporate all of it, just because it’s fun to do that.

Earlier this year, the trio began work on new album. A trip to a northern cabin was arranged to write the songs and the group has been tinkering with them during its performances. Now, Creighton said, they are madly writing grant proposals for funding, that sort of thing. The group has high praise for Borealis, the same label Sarnia-based harmonica player Mike Stevens is on. They’re awesome, Creighton said. It’s unlike any other label in Canada. The people who run Borealis are musicians themselves so they understand the world that musicians live and work in, she said. Signing with a major label, on the other hand, means joining a large stable of other acts, according to Creighton. The metaphor would be that they throw you all against the wall and see what sticks. You can end up in severe debt, owing them hundreds of thousands of dollars and never recovering.

Saturday is Sirens’ first performance in Sarnia. We’re quite excited, Creighton said. We hear lots of great things about that particular pub. London’s folk fusion trio Sirens plays Paddy Flaherty’s Restaurant and Pub Saturday, starting around 9:30 p.m.