Canadian Music Week Rundown: Day 2

For Ashley, 2013 is the year of rock. She’s already been to a number of local shows, but this week, Toronto is built on rock and roll as Canadian Music Week takes over the city and Ashley forgoes sleep for a week of rock. Missing the first night due to conflicting tickets to see Rock of Ages, let’s pick things up on Day 2.

Outlaws and Gunslingers Americana Music Association Showcase @ the Horsehoe Tavern

When we arrived at the venue just before 10pm, the place was already near capacity. We had to wait in line briefly while the authorities conversed about how many more people can be let in before having to turn away bodies. Thankfully, they eventually conceded with a “fuck it, you can all go in” and in we went.

What was interesting about the Horseshoe show last night was that there wasn’t just one lone cowboy on the stage, each set combined three entities all packing their own material collaborating together to play each other’s songs for an entire set. I’m not really sure how well this worked, but it did expose us to some new sounds and new artists that we might not have had time to see otherwise.

10pm – Oh Susanna, Daniel Romano, Kayla Howran

Our main reason for heading to the Horseshoe was to see Daniel Romano. He opened for Whitehorse a couple of weekends ago, but we missed his set and only saw him briefly when he joined Doucet and McClelland on stage toward the end of their gig.

Remembering him fondly from his Attack in Black days, Daniel carries himself with a whole different attitude this time around. His solo tunes have that classic country twang with a solid rock and roll heart that creates the image of kicking back on a porch during a hot summer’s day. It reminds me of home.

Sadly, we weren’t very familiar with Oh Susanna and Kayla Howran going in to things, but both sported powerful voices that filled the venue front to back with beautiful Americana melodies.

11pm – Jim Cuddy, Danny Michel, Quique Escamilla

Staying for the next set wasn’t really planned, but the happy accident provided us the opportunity to see Canadian icon Jim Cuddy. Cuddy was joined by Spanish artist Quique Escamilla, who was beside himself with the honour of sharing the stage with such a legend, and songwriter Danny Michel.

Similar to the first set, the three took turns leading each other through their repertoire, introducing us to a mixture of traditional folk with a dash of Mexican flavour. Cuddy was in great spirits, laughing and joking in between songs. It was well worth sticking around for.

There are no live images from the show, the venue was so packed and Ashley is too short to make that happen. Sorry. Other images are from google images.