Janes Addiction

Heh heh, that title will mess up a search engine or two….

In the last five days I’ve experienced and enjoyed the music of Lenni Jabour and The Third Floor, Claire Jenkins, Sirens, Penny Lang, Bob Snider, Darlene, Tanglefoot, Cartwheels and Kristin Sweetland, plus one or two more whose names I’ve forgotten. I bought five CDs from those individuals and groups–none on RIAA member labels, thankyewverymuch–and would have picked up twenty more if I hadn’t stopped myself.

If I were to go into detail about each performance I’d be typing here for a month, so I’ll just give short blurbs:

Lenni Jabour and The Third Floor

Incredible, fantastic, charming, brilliant… need I say more?

Claire Jenkins

Claire opened for Lenni at the Rivoli, and made a huge impression on those gathered. She must come to the Ugly Mug Café, soon and often.

Sirens

Sirens were the reason I went to the Home County Folk Festival, professionally and personally. I saw them perform in five separate workshops (with others from the list above) and on the main stage, and couldn’t have had a better time.

Darlene

Darlene was my biggest discovery of the festival. She’s eclectic, and funny, and principled, and nutty… and she’s convinced me, at least, that Marilyn Monroe should have married Henry Miller! The CD is also the longest single-artist non-compilation disc I’ve ever bought–it runs 72 minutes.

Kristin Sweetland

Kristin is a free spirit, a neo-flower-child. I can see how it’s hard to visit Planet Kristin for more than a short period at a time–I had to turn off her CD on the trip to Toronto to see Lenni–but I think I’ll stop by once in a while. Update: I’m not sure what my problem was with Kristin’s CD Root, Heart & Crown, because I’ve gone back to it and found it quite enjoyable… in fact, I’d go so far as to compare some of the music with Loreena McKennitt‘s. Often first impressions are accurate, but in this case I’m pleased to say mine was wrong–sorry Kristin!

Bob Snider

Bob Snider’s been a favourite for several years, but this is only the second time I’ve seen him in person. I actually know most of his songs through tribute versions. He’s a cross between Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan and Arlo Guthrie–great songwriters with unique voices and presentation–but he’s also got a skewed outlook on life that’s unmatched in my experience.

Tanglefoot, Penny Lang and Cartwheels

It’s odd to group these three together, because they’re so different, but I don’t have anything to say about any of them that you can’t hear in their music.

One last geeky note to make: Claire Jenkins’ website is one of the nicest official artist sites I’ve seen–and it’s just a single page laid out with CSS. (It doesn’t validate, but I can live with that because it’s not full of Flash animations and popups. I’m sure Justin Morrison could fix it up in a jiffy.)