Live Review: Kacy & Clayton w/ Ellen Froese
Kacy & Clayton w/ Ellen Froese
The Broadway Theatre
December 16, 2019
Just after 7:30 PM on a chilly Monday night in Saskatoon, Ellen Froese is being called to The Broadway Theatre stage. While plugging in her acoustic guitar, with its body trademarked by a small self-painted bouquet of white flowers, Froese first shares that she sometimes works for the theatre, slinging beers in the lobby’s concession. Then she laughs, strums the guitar and launches into a short harmonica introduction. Before she even sings, Froese has already won the audience over.
In a short set that audibly left the crowd wanting more, Froese focused on performing songs from her recent full-band record Fightin’ Words. In a solo context, Ellen’s impressive vocal power and control is on full display and in full command, and a theatre is a perfect venue for her talents to shine.
Sprinkled between selections from Fightin’ Words, Froese played two brand new songs. She mentioned that the first song was written with Campbell (a nod to recent Youngblood’s tourmate, ON based songwriter Campbell Woods), while the other was quickly referred to as ‘her new cowboy song’. It was this humbly introduced new song that was the most intriguing moment of her set, demonstrating a dive into psychedelic folk. The inclusion of these two songs hints at new projects for the already prolific artist and her impressive performance Monday night foreshadows the chilly evenings in the not-too-distant future when she could be headlining venues like the ones Kacy &Clayton brought her along to warm up.
Kacy & Clayton bringing Froese on tour made perfect sense, not only because Froese seems like another cousin of cousins Kacy and Clayton, but because the three have forged a close working relationship with Kacy producing Froese’s recent album, and Clayton joining the fun in the studio. After mainly touring the US in the fall, Kacy & Clayton returned home to the prairies for a 7 date run in support of their October 2019 album, Carrying On.
The Saskatchewan raised duo, performing with bassist Andy Beisel and drummer Mike Silverman, tore right into Carrying On’s “In a Time of Doubt”, followed by “Just Like a Summer Cloud” from 2017’s excellent The Siren’s Song. Kacy was lead on both songs and began to settle in closer to the end of the second song, letting out a huge smile that was poorly held back until that moment.
It was on ‘High Holiday’ that Clayton Linthicum stepped upfront, leading both with his deeper voice and stylistic guitar. Joined throughout the song by Kacy Anderson’s timely, haunting harmonies, it is obvious when the two harmonize that there are years of chemistry in their voices that allow the notes to meld into one.
The set was heavy with songs from Carrying On, produced once again by Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, the album plays to the band’s strengths: engaging lyrics, haunting melodies, Anderson’s effortless vocals, and Clayton’s personality-bleeding guitar. During the show, Linthicum excelled on songs that featured his plucky, piercing guitar style and gave him a chance to dig his heels in. So when the guitar strings had their moment to resonate following each verse of “The South Saskatchewan River”, he made the most of it. Prior to starting this specific song and standing just a few hundred feet from said river, Clayton mentioned how tonight was the closest they have ever performed the song to the actual river it is named after. This proximity to the river seemed to provide an extra bit of inspiration for the performance. Just after Linthicum’s aching guitar followed the second verse and began to cry out at each pluck, the rest joined and the song began to flow with even more immediacy. Kacy, who was floating around at this time while strumming her guitar and scanning the group in a focused, studied manner, then suddenly cast her gaze up to the left balcony, while continuing to play and ponder. At this time, she grinned, something that had happened time and time again throughout the set, quick knowing glances amongst band members and with different faces in the audience. But then, Anderson was composed again, staring directly over the sea of faces, looking out through the end of the theatre. What was she thinking about? Maybe she was looking out to the river? She then let out another grand smile, just before she focused her gaze back down to the floor as the group was released from the powerful pull of the South Saskatchewan River.
Later, for their much deserved encore, Kacy & Clayton called Ellen Froese back to the stage to sing along on the final two songs: “The World Has Seven Wonders” from The Siren’s Song and a Gordon Lightfoot cover, “Bend in the Water”. While both acts have recently released two excellent albums, it is hard to replicate the charm that both Kacy & Clayton and Ellen Froese have as performers, and the little moments of inspiration and impulsivity that these seasoned performers share with their audiences make it silly to miss out on either act the next time they perform in your city.
- Greg Torwalt