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The Toronto Star January
29, 2004 by Greg Quill, Entertainment Columnist
She sounds chilled and cheerful over the phone, and happy to be back in her home province after almost a year of touring the U.S. promoting her most recent album, From Where I Stand , released on the prestigious roots music label, Rounder. "I'm not crazy about the driving," she says. "But for 16 dates in Ontario in three and a half weeks, flying's not an option. "I am enjoying the performances, and after spending so much time away from home, I'm curious to see how people here take to someone from down the road." They've been taking to Verch and her band — Tennessee bassist Jon Weisberger and North Carolina guitarist Chris Sharp — very well, turning up to fill small theatres, folk clubs and listening rooms across the province, and, she hopes, Toronto's preeminent acoustic music venue, Hugh's Room, on Sunday night. "We've been fortunate enough to get some really good press, and lots of airplay, particularly on country radio stations promoting our shows. And word-of-mouth does the rest ... maybe they remember me from the days when I used to compete all over Ontario in fiddle competitions and step-dancing contests. Back then, all I played and listened to was old-time Canadian fiddle music. I still love that music, but my ears have been opened in the last few years to fiddle music from Appalachia, Texas, Brazil. It's not about the Ottawa Valley any more. "If I was still playing old-time style, I'd be tired of it by now. But it was great training for me, figuring out how to play a tune five different ways. That's just as challenging as improvisation." Though the deal with Rounder has kept Verch on the road almost constantly, and though her star is well and truly ascendant on the American roots music horizon, the Berklee-trained virtuoso keeps close to her Canadian beginnings. She jumped at the chance to be part of Connie Kaldor's house band on the new Vision-TV folk music series, Connie Kaldor @ Wood River Hall , and not just because she was offered a featured episode, to air next month. "I've known Connie for a while," Verch says. "I've taken advice from her many times, and she has helped us out. She even sings on From Where I Stand . Playing on the show was a challenging experience, squeezed in between two tours, preparing the music with minimal resources, shooting all day every day, then learning the next day's stuff at night ... only to discover that all the arrangements had changed anyway. It allowed me to hone my back-up skills, but it was quite an adjustment." For all the exposure and rave notices she has received since her groundbreaking Rounder debut, VERCHuosity , produced by Toronto folk veteran Paul Mills, the young champion fiddler says success hasn't changed her at all. "I'm fortunate to make a living doing what I'm doing. There are so many people in the folk world who'd trade anything for one of my worst days." Plain Folk September
2003 by Les Pearson 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. Penguin Eggs Review September 2003 "From Where I Stand" by Kerry Doole 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. First, the instrumentals; Verch’s fluid fiddling is front-and-center on all the tunes, and she is usually accompanied by three or four others on instruments such as guitar, piano. bass and accordion. Of special note are a wedding march she wrote for her August 19, 2000, nuptials, “August 19,” which has a fiddle/guitar/cello/viola lineup and an arrangement by Darol Anger, and the traditional bluegrass “Dixie Hoedown,” with Bruce Molsky adding clawhammer banjo and Kenneth Saulnier playing mandolin. Other styles represented on this wide-ranging offering are French Canadian, Scottish, traditional French, and, of course, fiddle music from Verch’s native Ottawa Valley tradition in Ontario, namely an “Ottawa Valley Medley” that includes pieces penned by four fiddlers from the area. Some of Verch’s own compositions on the album are “Fraser Valley Reel,” dedicated to members of a fiddle club in British Columbia, and “Faniuck’s Fancy,” of which she says “it had a Ukrainian flair about it.” Now, the songs: Verch composed “A Riverboat’s Gone,” which is a mid-tempo, moving tribute to the late John Hartford, whose music “touched me in a way that nothing else ever has and ever will again,” states Verch. “I’ll Be All Smiles Tonight” uses a “big band” approach - fiddle/guitar/piano/bass/dobro/harmonica - augmented with two harmony vocalists on a warm sincere version of the A.P. Carter classic, and Greg Trooper’s country-folk “Light in the Window” is given a relaxed, homey treatment. She has a light, youthful voice with a delicate touch, and it serves her well on the material she chose to sing. April Verch is one of those under-30 artists who should continue to be a stalwart standard bearer for both the folk and the fiddling traditions for a long time. Jydske
Vestkysten (Danish Newspaper) Tonder
Festival - "The Future is Secure" "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." Winnipeg
Free Press Top
Talent Delivers a Fine Folk Fest Eve
Toronto
Star April
Verch - "From Where I Stand" (Rounder) 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. The
Ottawa Citizen From
Where I Stand **** by Patrick Langston 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 The Patriot Ledger May16, 2003 Fiddler (from Canada) not married to one genre by Stephen IdeIt’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. 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.” – STEPHEN IDE
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. Rambles April
Verch - "Fiddelicious" 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. The Toronto Star Young
fiddler making mark 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." Halifax Herald Talent
hotter than sunshine at Lunenburg music festival (Festival Review) 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...) The Celtic Beat July 2001
Review of "Verchuosity" 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... Sing Out! - Volume 45#2 Summer 2001 April Verch - "Verchuosity" 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 May 2001 by Tom Knapp 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. More reviews in the Archive.
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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. 