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Return to Main Reviews page Verch, fiddle pile
up miles 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 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) -April Verch 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 Hexham Courant (U.K.) 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 "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) - 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 The Record (Kitchener, Ontario) - Robert Reid 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 EnRoute (Air Canada) - Jurgen Gothe 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 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. Return to Main Reviews page
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