Take Me Back - Shortcutz Review

by Mike Ross Edmonton Sun, January 15, 2006

"... this fiddler takes a mighty stab into the heart of traditional music, at once "reel" down home and modern. She plays it too safe in places, but she should still go over huge at the folk fest. 3 1/2 out of 5 more >>

Folk's fresh faces: Six acts poised for an '06 breakthrough

by Daniel Gewertz, Boston Herald, January 3, 2006

Folk music is the ultimate indie genre. It lies so far from the music industry's star-making machinery that predicting future stars is like picking an American League pennant winner based on farm league reports. more >>

April Verch Interview

by Sue Kavanagh, Rogue Folk Newsletter, December, 2005

1. April, you knew what you wanted to do by the time you were ten and you are doing it now. That's amazing! Which did you receive more of from the people that mattered to you, concerned warnings against your desired path or encouragement in support of it, and how much did their opinions matter to you? more >>

Take Me Back leads Rounder's 2006 bluegrass music releases

Cybergrass, December 16, 2005

April Verch and Bobby Osborne & The Rocky Top X-Press will lead the 2006 Rounder bluegrass album releases. Rounder Records announced their January and February new releases Thursday and these two should be a great start for the new year. more >>

April Verch well beyond Ottawa Valley fiddle start

by Greg Quill, The Toronto Star, January 29, 2004

It's 8 a.m. in Sudbury, and Ottawa Valley fiddler April Verch has already been on the road for almost an hour, making good time in bad weather on a 12-hour drive from North Bay to Thunder Bay. more >>

Virtues and Fiddling Virtuosity: Meet April Verch!

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.) more >>

"From Where I Stand" Review
by Al Riess, Dirty Linen #108, October/November, 2003
April Verch returns to the recording studio with another charming CD of fiddle tunes, and this time she takes an additional step forward by adding a little bit of singing to her repertoire; five of the 14 selections feature vocals by this young, dynamic Canadian performer. more >>

"From Where I Stand" Review (PDF File)
by Kerry Doole, Penguin Eggs, September, 2003
Ottawa Valley fiddler-songwriter April Verch may not be as well-known in her homeland as fellow fiddler Natalie MacMaster, but she is a major talent worthy of greater recognition. She gained a following in the U.S. via her debut Rounder release, 2001’s Verchuosity (it grabbed a Juno nomination too), and that will likely expand with this fine follow-up.

more >> (PDF file)

Virtues and Fiddling Virtuosity: Meet April Verch!
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.) more >>

Tonder Festival - "The Future is Secure"
(article translated by the Canadian Embassy of Copenhagen)
by Jydske Vestkysten (Danish Newspaper), August 31, 2003
"Canadians know their stuff, because the day's afternoon program in Tent 1 concluded with the amazing violinist April Verch, who excelled with masterly technique and a sound from the violin which likely has never before been produced that beautifully in Tonder. Add to that an incredibly radiant personality and, of course, the stepdancing. Each and every time, stepdancing takes its Tonder audience by storm and yesterday was no exception."


Top Talent Delivers a Fine Folk Fest Eve
by Bartley Kives (Click for review) 148kb jpg

Winnipeg Free Press, July, 2003

"From Where I Stand" (Rounder)
b y Greg Quill, Toronto Star, May, 2003
Another charming and elegant outing from Ottawa Valley native Verch – this one’s produced in Quebec by Bruce Molsky – From Where I Stand embraces the traditional Maritimes, Ontario, Celtic and Appalachian fiddle repertoires and extends Verch’s reach to some experiments in moderate Latin folk forms and parlour balladry circa 1900. Playful and flirtatious, whimsical and wry, no longer the studious slave of her instrument, Verch is in peak form, having reached a transcendent level of musicianship where hard-earned technique can be safely abandoned. That’s not to say she has opted for the avant-garde; quite the opposite. Verch has simply found ways to colour the forms which so clearly satisfy her in quirky, contemporary ways as if she has traded her Berklee credentials for more potent experience – and some fun – in populist arenas such as folk festivals and concert clubs. She even proves here, on several cuts, that she has an absolutely captivating voice, as pure and naďve as her fiddle work often is, and tinged with the same kind of faint melancholy.


From Where I Stand ****
by Patrick Langston, The Ottawa Citizen, Saturday, May 20, 2003
With her fifth album (and her second U.S. release on Rounder Records), Pembroke-area fiddler April Verch charts new territory by adding vocals on several cuts.

Her voice - girlish, sweet but not naive - swings easily from contemporary to traditional gospel to A.P. Carter's I'll Be All Smiles Tonight, where Connie Kaldor helps out on harmony vocals. Verch's fiddling - at once articulate, crisp and spunky - is an endless delight, whether she's covering a traditional French Canadian, Scottish or bluegrass tune, performing the gorgeous August 19 - which she wrote as her own wedding march - or paying tribute to her home in Ottawa Valley Medley.

Oh yeah, she also step dances on one number.

April Verch plays the NAC's Fourth Stage at 8 p.m. tonight.

*****A classic of the genre
****Excellent
***Good
**Fair
*If your host puts this on, leave.


Fiddler (from Canada) not married to one genreby Stephen Ide, The Patriot Ledger, May 16, 2003
It’s almost unfair to refer to April Verch as a "Canadian fiddler."

Sure, she’s from Canada. She’s an award-winning fiddler who even stepdances while she plays. But too many fans associate the phrase "Canadian fiddler" with Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia.

Verch wants you to know that her Ottawa Valley roots – melding music of French-Canadian, Scottish, Irish, German and Polish traditions – and her playing of various regional Canadian styles, make her music distinctly different.

She’ll prove it when she performs with her band at the Rose Garden Coffeehouse in Mansfield on May 17.

(Also that night, three singersongwriters will vie for a prize and recognition at the coffeehouse’s 11th annual competition: Katrin Roush, Marc Douglas Berardo and Cadence Car roll.)

Verch makes an art of playing styles from Celtic to folk to bluegrass.

"Because I like to play so many different styles I know that I will never master all of them – and so I want to make sure that I’m respecting the tradition," she said. "I’m trying to explore the style, get something from it, add something to it, but kind of make it my own."

She started playing fiddle at 6, urged by her father who also was musical. Now 25, the Berklee-trained musician is poised for international attention.

She recently released her fifth CD, "From Where I Stand," with Rounder Records in Cambridge.

The first CD to feature Verch’s tender-sweet singing, it includes a mix of Irish medleys, originals and tunes inspired by Appalachia and the music of the late John Hartford, a performer and riverboat pilot who played several instruments, including fiddle. One highlight is “August 19,” a song she wrote for her own wedding three years ago, a tender melody recorded with viola and cello.

Verch developed an appreciation for Hartford’s music only a few years before his death in 2001, and she dedicated another of the CD’s songs, “A Riverboat’s Gone/Bumblebee in a Jug,” to him.

Hartford’s music changed her perspective on playing, Verch said. “His fiddle playing – he’s not technically perfect at all. And yet, of all the people I’ve heard play the fiddle, his music touches me in a way no one else has.”


Fiddler Verch simply divine ... (Concert Review)
by Stephen Pedersen, Halifax Herald, August 11, 2002
Lunenburg - Elfin fiddler April Verch had only 30 minutes to play a handful of tunes at the Lunenburg Folk Harbour Festival's Grand Banker Wharf on Friday afternoon. But when she had finished, the Ottawa Valley fiddling phenomenon gave delighted listeners not just a taste, but the full-meal deal to whet appetites for her festival-closing set tonight in the Mainstage Tent.

It's always a good thing for a performer to leave an audience howling for more. But she is such a startlingly brilliant player/performer you have to wonder whether even too much would be enough.

Backed by bassist Philippe Breau, guitarist Taylor Buckley and percussionist Mark Bru, Verch needed nothing additional to set up her remarkable playing style. She's low-key and modest when it comes to presentation. She lets her fiddle do the talking, set off by a small, shy smile and a flush of vitality in her cheeks that express both her love of performing and even more her personal delight in the music.

She infuses the rhythms of waltzes, polkas, reels and jigs with the subtle dynamic variations of weight, pressure, speed and momentum of a surfboarder haunting the curl of a huge wave threatening at every moment to crush her under tons of water. Yet her playing is light and delicate and as sensitive to the musical winds that flow beneath her wings as a soaring bird.


"Fiddelicious"
by Tom Knapp (link here), Rambles
If you read my previous review of April Verch's most recent CD, Verchuosity, you know how much I enjoyed this happy young fiddler's work. So I was more than pleased when she sent me an earlier recording, Fiddelicious, to hear the younger April at work.

If I didn't already know how good she was, I still would have approached this CD with a high degree of optimism. Natalie MacMaster, one of my primary idols in the fiddling world, offers high praise on the back cover, and high praise from Natalie is something to ponder. April certainly lives up to it.

Fiddelicious is infused with joy, a tangible pleasure in the act of playing. You can tell that April is deeply in love with her music, so clearly does it ring out in every note.

There's plenty of variety here, too. "Chopman" was written by Verch and Fiona Coll after learning fiddle chopping techniques from Darol Anger. Coll and Casey Driessen add extra fiddle layers to the tune. "Bluebird Waltz," by Evan Price, employs Dave Babcock on saxophone for some great fiddle/sax duets. The Texas traditional tune "Say Old Man" adds a different sort of flair to Verch's Canadian sound. A set of danceable French-Canadian tunes flows into "Golden Memories," a lovely old-time waltz written by Verch for a neighbor's 50th anniversary. "Creaking Tree" is a funky bluegrass tune by Darol Anger. The hymn "Nearer My God to Thee," given a particularly touching treatment here, is a tribute to the fiddler's late grandfather. And Verch demonstrates her stepdancing abilities by providing lively foot-percussion on the final medley of tunes.

That's a sample of the 15 tracks that combine into one great CD. April Verch is a terrific fiddler whose work should be on every fiddle lover's short list.

Young fiddler making mark
Exceptional versatility includes step dancing
by Greg Quill - ROOTS (link here), The Toronto Star
Fiddle players don't have it easy.

Precious few of the very best can make a decent enough living as session musicians, serving up licks on country and folk music recordings, or touring with bands that can afford what is often considered luxury accompaniment.

Others occasionally find work in symphony orchestras, provided they have adequate classical music training, or hook up with one of those ubiquitous pseudo-Celtic, choreographed step-dancing/fiddle ensembles that are the legacy of Riverdance and its variants.

And once in a blue moon a fiddler of exceptional ability and versatility — like Ottawa Valley's April Verch — simply demands to be heard.

Graceful, forceful, eloquent, well-versed in the traditional styles of her instrument, Verch is no gizmo-driven whizbang kid bent on reshaping the parameters of fiddle music, no fusionist reinventing the form. Verch is unashamedly a folk artist who, at 23 and with no fewer than four CDs to her credit, has found appreciative audiences.

All over North America she's a staple of the festival and folk-club circuit, and was a featured performer at the Millennium Celebrations at the Kennedy Center in Washington last year.

She's also popular in Europe for her kinetic, no-nonsense command of the fiddle styles of Quebec, the Appalachians, Eastern Europe, even Brazil, as well as the "old-time" strains of her home region in Canada.

Verch and her band — percussionist Marc Bru, guitarist Clint Pelletier and pianist Kimberley Holmes — are bringing their rich fiddle broth to Allen's pub (143 Danforth Ave.) Tuesday night and to the Owen Sound Festival the following weekend.

"I grew up on the music of Graham Townsend and Don Messer, " Verch says from a gas-station pit stop somewhere on the road from Boston to Portland, Maine. "In Pembroke, if you played the fiddle, theirs was the music you played. But I've learned the nuances of other styles — fiddle music is incredibly diverse.

"Not that everyone knows the difference. At some of the festivals we do, particularly bluegrass festivals in the U.S., the people in the audience are almost all accomplished fiddlers with a deep understanding of regional styles.

Other places they've heard very little fiddle, and you just have to win them over, explain things as you go.

"I write a lot of my own material as well, and would like to include more in our show. But you need the traditional material to satisfy the fiddle purists."

Verch's most recent CD, Verch-uosity, produced in Toronto by veteran folk musician Paul Mills and released on the prestigious U.S. roots label, Rounder Records, is testament to the young musician's manifold talents except one — she has recently added step dancing to her stage repertoire.

"It's part of the tradition where I grew up," says Verch, who studied at the Berklee School of Music in Boston. "And it adds something that a lot of fiddle players don't have.

"At most of the festivals we play, we're the act that's different."


Talent hotter than sunshine at Lunenburg music festival (Festival Review)
by Stephen Pedersen, Halifax Herald
Ottawa Valley fiddler, stepdancer, composer and singer April Verch, pulling tone out of her fiddle leaf, stem, root and all, yanked the final night crowd to their feet with her explosive style Sunday night at the final performance of the 16th annual Lunenburg Folk Harbour Festival.

Petite and fresh, with an inextinguishably impish smile on her face, Verch lost no time launching into her old-time repertoire with a-last-one-in-the-pool-is-a-piker energy, playing with tremendous splash, vivacity and eager vitality. (more...)

"Verchuosity"
by Joanne Gagnon, The Celtic Beat, July 2001
April Verch's new CD Verch-u-os-i-ty simply cannot be ignored - from the moment I began listening to it, it grabbed my attention (and my ears) and held it until the last cut was done. In other words, it's magnificent. Her strength in fiddle artistry and versatility of fiddle styles is amazing. I couldn't help but notice the opening tune "William Gagnon" (being of Gagnon ancestry myself lent pride here) which April rendered so well with her clear and brilliant fiddling. This was proceeded by "Ross' Reel No. 4", an interesting reel spiced up with a bit of a Brazilian influence...and more Brazilian influence was found on "Diabinho Malucco", a really cool rhythmic piece which shows just how versatile April's fiddling is...and switching tracks, there's the waltz "Britany", a very beautiful waltz where April's fiddle just beams with emotion. Dear to the heart also are the French-Canadian medleys "6/8 du Petit-Sarny"/"Une March de Thomas Pomerleau"/"Reel Andre Alain" and "Le Bedeau de l'Enfer"/"Contredanse a Pitou"/"Reel de la Broue", both lovely and cheerful, foot tapping indeed...and all else on this CD is just as brilliant for April Verch's fiddling just shines like the sun...

"Verchuosity"
Sing Out! - Volume 45#2, Summer, 2001
Sometimes grizzled old veterans have been heard stating in disgust "talent is wasted on the young!" I have to admit that I've thought that a time or two myself. Then along comes a true fiddle virtuoso following in the footsteps of Mark O'Connor or Natalie MacMaster and my mind is forever changed. April Verch, just in her early twenties, is a marvel to behold. She's a true prodigy, who by the age of six was step dancing and fiddling in her native Canada. She went on to study with many Canadian master musicians, eventually landing in Boston at the Berklee College of Music studying with Matt Glaser and Darol Anger. In between, she traveled throughout Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States giving concerts and teaching at various music camps. Verchuosity is her fourth recording. Variety is a quality not often found in traditional-based-fiddle recordings. Frequently these recordings are a showcase of a particular region or style with a sameness to the selections, no matter how well the music is handled. Verchuosity breaks the mold with a wide variety of styles and instrumentation. At first glance the recording seems like a collection of Cape Breton dance music but by the second selection, the samba inspired arrangement of the New England tune "Ross' Reel no. 4" you are aware you're in for something rare and delightful. Later in the recording April swings in "Diabinho Malucco" by Brazilian mandolin master Jacob de Bandolin, complete with jazz piano and various percussion instruments (I'd swear I hear vibes in there somewhere by they're not credited in the notes!) April states that one of her favorite fiddlers is Bruce Molsky, and she tackles one of his signature tunes "Lost Boy," featuring the guitar and banjo of fellow Canadian Chris Coole. She changes the pace with "Massif Central" a tune written by her husband Marc Bru about the region in France where his ancestors originated. It's full of legato phrases with a strict underlying dance tempo offering lots of twists and turns and a decidedly Gypsy-Klezmer flavor. Did I mention there's some great Canadian dance music on the recording? Some of the best tunes are penned by April herself. The recording closes with a medley of tunes dedicated to the later Graham and Eleanor Townsend, whom April calls her true fiddle heroes. She follows "Tribute to the Townsends" with a heartfelt reading of "The Old Rugged Cross", and unexpected but lovely conclusion to a beautiful recording. April Verch is truly a player worth watching in the coming years. It will be fun to see where the next few recordings take her. Really, talent is seldom wasted on the young. --T.D.


Rambles, A Cultural Arts Magazine
by Tom Knapp, May, 2001
Good cheer and optimism must be ingrained in the very wood of April's fiddle.

Or, perhaps, the buoyant smile April wears on the cover and in every picture in the liner notes has permeated the very core of the CD within.

Whatever the cause, 22-year-old April Verch's CD Verchuosity is a peppy, lively and, above all, happy recording of fiddle tunes played with exceptional grace and skill. Once I started listening to this Canadian prodigy play, I couldn't stop. I think I've absorbed her music into my bloodstream by now.

Verch, a native of the Ottawa Valley and veteran of the Berklee College of Music in Boston, has packed a lot of tradition and innovation onto one CD. Her 16 tracks, logging in at 52 minutes, dazzle and amaze from the first delicate notes on the traditional "William Gagnon" through to the final, airy bowstrokes on George Bennard's "The Old Rugged Cross."

On an album of exceptional tracks, it's hard to pick standouts -- but there are a few which linger in my head just a bit longer than the rest. My personal favorites are "Ross' Reel No. 4," "Britany" (a very pretty waltz of April's own composition) and "Massif Central," a tune written by Marc Bru, April's manager, percussionist and, oh yes, husband. The latter tune has a very European sound (I'd have guessed a Ukranian influence; April in her liner notes cites a region in France) and builds gradually to a frantic pace, ending with April's fiddle flirting madly with a guest clarinet.

Even listing those few favorites makes me feel like I've cruelly overlooked excellent tracks such as "Fire When Ready," a give-and-take number composed by April with Taylor Buckley; the Brazilian-flavored "Diabinho Malucco," which translates to "crazy little devil" and supports the fiddle line with instruments including the soprano saxophone and djembe; "Marry Me," April's lilting ode to her husband; "Sneaky," another tune from April and Taylor, which smacks of mischief; and "Tribute to the Townsends," a wonderfully varied set of tunes by the late Graham, Eleanor and Gray Townsend.

The "Canadian Reel Medley" has a wonderful touch -- the track begins with the late Red Bennett, a popular DJ and musician from the Ottawa Valley, chatting with a much-younger April before she launched into an amazingly fast cut of "Trip to Windsor." Li'l April only has the spotlight for a moment, however; the track is slowed down and mixed with her modern, more mature interpretation of the full set of reels. While the actually blending of the two is a little sloppy, it's a clever gimmick nonetheless.

I was surprised to learn that this is not Verch's first CD. Curses on the border which keeps so much great music from crossing over into the States! Three previous albums -- Springtime Fiddle, Fiddle Talk and Fiddlelicious -- are out there somewhere, waiting to be discovered.

For those of you who, like me, are hearing of April for the first time, a bit of biography is warranted. With more than 400 fiddling awards to her credit, including Canadian Grand Master Fiddling Champion, Canadian Open Fiddling Champion and finalist in the Grand Masters Fiddling Championships in Nashville, April has certainly impressed the right people to get noticed. She started stepdancing at age 3, fiddling at age 6, and she teaches both skills privately and at music camps for kids. Her dancing and foot percussion make a few appearances on this album as well.

She is young and incredibly talented, and when I look over my music collection a decade from now, I hope to see quite a few CDs bearing her name. April is a treasure.


Verch, fiddle pile up miles
by Cam Fuller, TheSaskatoon StarPhoenix, April 25, 2001
Since she was 12, April Verch has been hanging around with a friend that's much older than she is. But don't worry, it's not some kind of weird Celine Dion thing.

It's Verch's German fiddle, now 120 year old. The constant companion has seen her through competitions and concerts, recording sessions and road trips.

"I still haven't found any I like better," Verch said recently.

"It's got a really rich and kind of dark tone. And I'm really aggressive when I play, so I need something that can take the bite."

It better be tough, because the miles are piling up. Verch has been touring constantly before and since the release of her fourth album, VERCHuosity. The Ottawa Valley native is based in Saskatoon, though you'd hardly know it. California, Oklahoma, England, Scotland, and every corner of rural Saskatchewan have welcomed Verch in the past year. In the coming months, she'll return to California and Oklahoma and do shows in Montana and Nova Scotia.

French Canadian, Latin, French, Western-swing and European jazz tones make VERCHuosity a virtual variety pack of music. It also give audiences everywhere something to seize upon.

"That's actually one of the neat things of the recording. When we're touring to support it we can play a lot of places. To take those styles and make them my own is fun to try," Verch adds.

VERCHuosity is a breakthrough album for Verch. It's the first album of a four-disc deal with the highly regarded American label Rounder Records, which has artists like Alison Krauss and Bill Evans on its roster. The deal came about when the president heard Verch perform at an international folk alliance showcase in the States. A year of negotiations followed.

"They're just so well respected. Everyone figures, geez, if you're on there you must be good."

The connection with Rounder does bring instant credibility, but it's not as if Verch needed it. She's won some 400 competitions, including Canadian Grand Master Fiddle Champion and Canadian Open Fiddle Champion. She's also studied at Berklee and taught frequently, including at the Emma Lake Fiddle Camp. With Rounder however, Verch gets a direct link to the vast American market, her disc in stores and her music on the radio. It's also helped in landing the management of Tennessee-based Herschel Freeman Agency, which also represents Natalie MacMaster. Watch the bookings now, boy.

Labels just can't keep well enough alone, of course. In Verch's case, it was Rounder's suggestion she do some singing. You'd think playing and step dancing would be enough. Verch was a little unsure of it at first, but she's incorporated some bluegrass and folk songs into her show and it's working out.

"The crowd loves it and I like it so I'm going to keep doing it," she says.

"It's kind of fun. Two hours is a long time to hold a crowd just with instrumentals, even with the dance.

" Verch stages the CD release party for VERCHuosity on Friday at the Broadway Theatre. The title of the album, by the way, was the idea of Verch's husband and percussionist Marc Bru. Also in the band is guitarist Freddie Pelletier and pianist Benoit Legault.


Fiddler a treat for eyes and ears
by Kim Mannix, The StarPhoenix, April 30, 2001
It was a toe-tapping Friday evening at the Broadway Theatre as fiddler April Verch launched the Canadian release of her fourth CD, VERCHuosity.

Taking the stage with her three-person band, Verch vaulted into a fiery fiddle tune that immediately got the crowd energized. It was a lively start to an exhilarating show.

The first thing that hits you about Verch is her small stature, and pretty, smiling face. Even her voice is soft and innocent, but when Verch sets to work on her fiddle strings the result is powerful, beautiful music. Playing her instrument with a kind of controlled aggression, Verch is as entertaining to watch as she is to listen to.

Her skill was superbly displayed in her fast, high-energy songs and the musician also shone on slower, softer tunes. A melodious waltz Verch wrote for a friend stricken with cancer was performed with brilliance.

While the fiddler is easily entertaining enough to go solo, she had a talented trio to back her up. Pianist Benoit Legault and guitarist Freddie Pelletier complimented Verch's playing with their own musical gifts. Percussionist Marc Bru, a Saskatoon native, entertained with an array of rhythm instruments and a few humorous jokes to keep the mood of the evening light and fun.

Originally from Pembroke, Ont., Verch has incorporated fiddle music from around the globe into her repertoire. Everything from an Irish medley to a fervent Latin-style song, to French Canadian traditional pieces, were played with ease and expertise.

And if all that wasn't enough to impress the crowd, Verch even sang a few songs, and dazzled with her fast and furious step dancing.

It was a perfect showcase of Verch's musical talent and her ability to entertain. If you even get the chance to see this energetic fiddler perform live, take it.


"Verchuosity" (Rounder)
by Eric Fiddler, AP Writer, January 19, 2001
The young fiddler April Verch takes her place near the head of the table with "Verchuosity." Think Mark O'Connor. Think Stuart Duncan. Get a grip on yourself, she can't be that good. Sit down and listen to "Verchuosity" again, paying closer attention to her phrasing and tone. Think of the young Stephane Grappelli.

OK, so at 22, Verch is perhaps not quite in that league. Perhaps. But her talent seems boundless. She plays with technical brilliance, but also gets a gorgeous tone out of her fiddle. Verch moves easily from French-Canadian to Appalachian, Scottish and even Brazilian tunes, showing mastery of each style. Her original songs sparkle, too, from the jauntily addictive "Fire When Ready" to the slinky, Hot Club-style "Sneaky."

"Verchuousity" showcases a great young talent, but more importantly, it's a whole lot of fun.


Amazing April and her bedazzling reels
by Larry Winger, Hexham Courant (U.K.), December, 2000
There are only so many ways to say "what an incredible evening" and for this critic, the sold-out room at the King's Head, Allendale, on Friday presented another problem with superlatives.

When the encores go on and on, when the show is unstoppable and the presentation is top quality, the least a critic can do is to attempt to indicate just how amazing, just how incredibly wonderful the show actually was.

In the way, one might hope, those many souls who had to be turned away will be able to appreciate vicariously some semblance of the evening.

So we try to describe the talent that is April Verch.

You've got to discount the fact that every man in he audience fell in love with her from square one. That leaves the female half that needed to be convinced. So you figure in the fiddle virtuosity, which bedazzled from the first arpeggio, and then the heart-stopping dancing which was literally amazing, so that entranced everyone, say no more.

Was it the two vocals which conspired to convince us of the talent? Some might say these were the least of the evening, but I, a deeply dark country music fan at heart, found her fragile country voice perhaps the most compelling part of an entertainment package that someone described as vaudeville at its best.

This is a talent that is unique. You take a country fiddler, with roots in classic Irish-Scots music as realized in expatriate mode, where the fondly remembered homeland lives forever, and you incorporate a bit of fresh enthusiasm, Canadian-style, and you've found April. The spring motif is a particularly resonant metaphor for Canadians, who actually scoff at these effete Northumberland winters! Fiddlers from Appalachia through to Brazil would also appreciate the nod that April gave to their disparate styles.

Then you add a bit of showbiz razzamatazz, with tapping feet that conspired to overwhelm the percussion part of the band (though Marc Bru on spoons did his best to compare.) Add in the floppy, desultorily French-Canadian hands of Benoit Legault on bouncing keyboard, and the adulatory licks of Freddie Pelletier on guitar, and you've got the whole band. Never mind that one of them was the husband, they were all wholly in love with their mistress.

But nobody, even those who had promoted the evening, nobody was prepared for the control April exhibited when she tapped into heaven and then brought the whole night to its feet with crashing reels on a fiddle that never lost its musical control while those tapping talents kept pounding out a beat that went on and on and on.

Vicarious experience is one thing, the reality is always better! So it's a good thing that the band is feted to return in the summer when a venue sufficient to hold the swarming crowd will be available.


Canadian fiddling champion sets toes tapping
by Debra Pinkerton, The Canora Courier, October 25, 2000
"Wow," "amazing," and "incredible": how else would you describe a performer who started taking lessons and competing at the age of three, has won more than 400 awards, is the youngest woman and only the second woman to ever win the title of Canadian Fiddle Champion and has won it twice (1997 and 1998)?

And all before the age of 21.

April Verch, fiddler, dinger, and step dancer played to an appreciative audience at the Canora Composite School on Monday, Oct. 16. Her two-hour program was non-stop music that made toe-tapping irresistible, with pauses only for a string of jokes told by Verch's husband and percussionist, Marc Bru.

Also backed by guitarist Freddie Pelletier and keyboardist Benoit Legault, Verch's opening was reminiscent of Don Messer and continued with an energy that kept her audience clapping right to the encore piece Old Rugged Cross. With many French Canadian tunes, a smattering of Latin and a good mix of Celtic and Maritime styles, Verch held her audience spellbound with maturity far beyond her years.

Several pieces were her own compositions, from the waltz Britany to Eldon and Ethel, written for the 50th wedding anniversary of her Ontario neighbours when she was growing up, to Marry Me, which she wrote for her own wedding to Bru in August. One piece, The Thomas Reel, was written for her older sister, Tawnya Thomas, who step dances, sings and plays the piano.

Several were duets, such as Say Old Man with Pelletier on guitar, an untitled piece composed by and performed with Legault. Many pieces featured Bru on a variety of percussive instruments, including wooden spoons and a handheld Irish drum called a bodhran.

Verch dedicated Ross's Reel No. 4 to a young girl she met out at the mall at supper whom she knew only as Brooke.

With music in the family, Verch says she danced before she walked. She started competing the first summer after she started taking lessons, and "step dancing and violin competitions go together. The first time I saw one, I had to be a fiddle player, but my parents didn't think I could practice both," Verch said, "so I got my fiddle when I was six."

"Imagine how good I'd be if they let me start when I was younger. I like to bug my mom about that," she laughed.

She took step dancing lessons until she was 13, and fiddle lessons until she finished high school. After high school, she studied at the Berklee College of Music in Boston for a year.

She's been touring ever since. Her arts council tour in the province this season stops in 23 towns, after which she's off the Pennsylvania, then England and Scotland for a month.

Verch wants to reach a wide audience with a variety of styles and tempos. At the end of her concert, as she said goodnight, she waved, and a man in the front row waved back.

That's when a performer knows she's touched a chord in her audience.


Royal Gazette Review (Bermuda)

by Raymond Hainey, April, 1999
…The regular line-up was complemented by the multi-talented April Verch as guest fiddler. And Ms. Verch - a winner of the Canadian Grand Nationals - almost stole the entire show with a violin solo combined with step dancing, a derivative of traditional Irish dancing by the looks of it.


The Country Gentleman

by Robert Reid, The Record (Kitchener, Ontario), February, 1999
…Hunter has always had an eye for talent. While his ensemble was excellent, lead guitarist Steve Petrie, Steel/dobro guitarist, Steve Smith and fiddler April Verch were especially noteworthy. Verch, a two-time Shelburne Grand Master came close to stealing the show when she delivered an electrifying run on Wildwood Flower, complete with lightning-quick step dancing. Al Churney would be proud.


New Music from Canada

by Jurgen Gothe, EnRoute (Air Canada) Magazine, December, 1999
April Verch: Fiddelicious Here's another firehouse fiddler in the mould of Natalie MacMaster. Verch studied at Berklee and her strings burn with energy, whether she's playing waltzes, airs, reels or polkas. This is the hottest old-time music of the year.


Berklee beat, Berklee today

Summer, 1998
…After the music resumed, one of numerous highlights came when fiddler April Verch and mandolinist Casey Driessen played a bluegrass rendition of Leiber and Stoller's "That Is Rock and Roll." The audience roared as Verch, a champion fiddler from Ontario, Canada, displayed her virtuosity on violin and as a tap dancer. The duo brought down the house with Verch's simultaneous tapping and fiddling pyrotechnics.


Only second woman to win title, Verch takes Open championship

by Alan Claridge, 1997

For just the second time in the 48 year history of the event, and for the first time in 19 years, a woman has won the Canadian Championship Fiddler's Contest.

April Verch, a 20 year-old fiddler originally from Pembroke, Ontario, won the Championship division Saturday night during the CBC Broadcast, the first woman to accomplish the feat since Eleanor Townsend in 1979.

Ms. Verch has become a familiar face in Open division's final three, placing in the top three in each of the past four years, with one second place and two third place finishes.

Ms. Verch said she was "very happy to have finally won the championship," and that the title was just the capper to a very busy year, which saw her study at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, and move out to Saskatoon, where she is closer to the majority of work she says she gets.

She also said she was very thankful to the contest judges and to the Rotary Club for giving her the opportunity to compete in such a great competition.

Ms. Verch said she hopes to be back next year to defend her title, saying "she would make herself available," as long as her schedule would permit it.