Booking & Management:
Ed Kenney
McDermott Entertainment
30 Rowes Wharf, Suite 470
Boston, MA 02110
telephone: 617-350-5646
fax: 617-557-9166
eok@McDermottVentures.com
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by Les Pearson, Plain Folk, September, 2003
Not all great musicians are nice people. Audiences struck by a 5000-amp bolt from fine stage performers may wrongly assume that heavenly music emanates only from earth-bound angels. Well, give your harp a shake! (But not too hard.)
Sometimes assumptions are in perfect pitch with reality. Meeting fine folks is not unusual in folk circles. Meeting happily married performers may be. Meet Mrs. and Mr. Bru.
My interview with April Verch and her percussionist husband, Marc Bru, was idyllic under the firs at Canmore Folk Festival. Marc is also April's manager. The couple hail from April's Pembroke, Ontario, birthplace. Marc is a Saskatchewan boy. Early in their relationship, April moved to Saskatchewan to give their relationship the test of close proximity. Marc passed.
Now, three years into their marriage and joint careers, they have settled where April's musical roots run deepest. That is firmly in the French and Celtic, step dancing and fiddling, traditions of the Ottawa Valley.
It was a blazing summer afternoon, but the young couple's honesty was a cool breeze. They had just finished a workshop entitled "Fiddlin' Around" in the company of Tania Elizabeth, Calvin Cairns, Adrian Dolan and Jeremy Penner. Each fiddler has a special claim to greatness. But I would hitch my wagon to Verch's vaulting star.
I am not alone. Rounder Records hooked up with this fiddling sensation and released her third and fourth discs, Verchuosity (2001) and Where I Stand (2003). They knew a good thing. Each of her five recordings has its own special flavour. April talks about recordings in the domestic language of cooking. Each is a melange. It is no accident that her third CD was titled Fiddelicious (1998). Marc's belt line is bulging.
April's performing pedigree includes her father's country western band and her older sister's step dancing. Dad played guitar, fiddle and sang. April step dances, plays fiddle, and even sings on her latest CD. Her style is eclectic. She studiously avoids giving it a label. Perhaps this stems from the training she received at Berklee College of Music in Boston. Here her influence was Matt Glaser, a master of jazz, bluegrass and diversity!
After her talent and energy, what most impresses me is April's good sense and decency. Here is a comment on her music: "I like too many things to master them all." This statement was a modest reply to praise for her international acclaim and fiddling awards.
One of her heroes is Don Messer because, "He was just himself." She believes this authenticity was what "touched so many people." And about being herself, April says, "I'm passionate about a lot of styles...The last thing I want is to be a clone." April wants to make it clear that she's putting her own spin on traditional music.
The key in music--and in life--is finding that balance between what is traditionally good and what is personally unique. April Verch's true virtuosity is finding this fine balance.
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