The Lure of Sirens
April 23, 2001
Nora Galloway chuckles on the phone from her home in London, Ontario: We were told,
You girls really rock!
and When I hear your harmonies, I feel like I’m sitting in front of a warm fire!
That gives you an idea of how far apart the reactions can be to our music!
Galloway and colleagues Donna Creighton and Jo-Ann Lawton make up Sirens, a trio whose vocals anchor a sound at least as diverse as the audiences’ reactions. Certainly their recent cd Smilin’, runs the gamut of musical genres: Beautiful Blue is a credible 19th century-style nautical folk ballad, while Misery is a Gerschwinesque romp. There is plenty of range in between. One of the reasons we do a good show, is that you don’t know what’s coming next,
adds Lawton. We get a hundred percent call-back on our shows!
Toss three of us into a mix with our backgrounds and you get every genre there is,
Creighton laughs. We do it, because we can!
If the music on Smilin’ is diverse in style, the theme that leaps out at the listener is that of relationship. Relationship drives the writing in this collection,
Creighton says. Her Heed the Warning is a modern day fable about crazy-makers and manipulators in an office setting, while Lawton’s When Push Comes to Shove deals with domestic abuse and mind games. Galloway’s poignant Em’s Song is a grown daughter’s grief at the deterioration of her mother, as Alzheimer’s Disease ravages her mind.
Relationship in terms of their chemistry as a group is essential to Sirens’ sound, and has been from the word go
. I was going to do a concert about four Christmases ago with Nora, and had asked Donna to come in on it,
Lawton recalls. We got her a tape of our songs one day before rehearsal, and when she joined in, the blend and the sound were right there immediately. I laughed out loud!
In the two weeks’ rehearsals leading up to that concert, Sirens was born.
Within four months, the trio audaciously cut a cd, then began a round of shows at various festivals and venues throughout Ontario. They caught on with audiences and promoters to the point of being showcased twice in three years as one of the top ten folk acts in the Ontario Council of Folk Festivals. American and Quebec reaction seems equally positive. For Smilin’s crisp vital sound, the trio were able to secure the services of folk music legends Bill Garrett and Paul Mills.
Now, Sirens is set to entice and entertain north shore audiences with their chemistry, offering solid skillful vocals backed up by guitars, bodhran and recorders, Sunday night at the Outpost. In addition, the trio will remain in the area for a time to offer vocal harmonies workshops in several area schools. We do these in places when we’re asked,
says Creighton. With the older kids, we’ll be taking them a song they already know, then each of us will take a group of them and working with them on an arrangement of that song.
Afterward, the groups will be brought back to perform their arrangement for the others. They’ll find out how different arrangements of the same song can be!
Creighton adds. It’s all part of the enticement of music.
Sunday Night Folk Series presents Sirens in concert at The Outpost, LU, Sunday April 29th, showtime 8 PM; and Monday, April 30, at 58 Brompton Road, Red Rock. For more information, tickets, contact Liz Foulds at 807-886-1041 (phone), 807-886-1042 (fax).