The Wee Folk Club: Beverlie Robertson and Marianne Girard

FEATURING: BEVERLIE ROBERTSON and MARIANNE GIRARD

The wee folk club in Toronto is a recreation of what was the best of British folk clubs.

A small room in a pub where singers sang songs with stories in them, you know, Folk Songs.

Cover is $10. The music starts promptly at 7:30pm.
www.theweefolkclub.wordpress.com

BEVERLIE ROBERTSON:

Beverlie burst upon the scene in 1961 and was propelled into the forefront of the folk music world along with her trio “The Chanteclairs,” whose music was international in flavour and boisterous in its Canadian content. This iconic trio travelled the world expanding the love for “the people’s music.”

Beverlie brings her love of folk music into the schools, formerly with Mariposa-In-The-Schools, now with Kaleidoscope and on her own. The kids’ eyes light up when she sings, tells stories and demonstrates her various instruments.

A staunch advocate for women, she published a book With Knowing Eyes; Canadian women in song, whose songs capture the social history of women & their participation in Canada’s development. She also taught University courses based on its contents.

Accompanying herself on 6 & 12-string guitars, autoharp & Appalachian dulcimer, Beverlie has been a regular performer on Canadian and international media. Peter Gzowski referred to her as a “pioneer” in Canadian folk music. She played the first Mariposa Festival and many more.
Whether in concert, workshop, pub, or coffee house, her songs bring warmth, hope and joy to all.


MARIANNE GIRARD:

“Marianne Girard is described as ‘a revelation’ by the Toronto Star, and ‘compelling and insightful’ by Sing Out! Magazine. Her life as a songwriter and journeyman spans more than three decades; and it is one she has steadfastly shared with her audience, despite the vagaries of the music business. In a celebrity culture that now operates at Twitter speed, and with about as much depth, Marianne insists on the ebb and flow rhythm it takes to sustain as an artist for a lifetime; withdrawing from the mass when necessary, and ‘keep showing up’ as a performer when replenished. As she herself says, ‘In the end, it is the song that matters’.

Rural Ontario born and raised, she found her voice at an early age in the school choir. Songwriting became an urgency as a troubled teen. Her chosen isolation in the Tennessee mountains incubated a creative core that would become virtually indestructible.

As a studio session singer, Marianne has sung on countless music and media projects. As an artist, she continues to tour, and has recorded three albums; ‘When It Hurts’ in the days of vinyl, ‘In This Town’ in 2002, and ‘Pirate Days’ in 2009. This last work, emerging after seven years, won her a Canadian Folk Music Awards nomination. A new collection of songs is percolating, but, true to her nature, Marianne is in no hurry.”