Limes with Orange

Went back to the Ship & Anchor for the Best Song Finals. The experience of the competitors this week was apparent in the greater variety of sounds and my overall enjoyment of the music. Having said that, when Jasmine got up to sing I still felt transported from a local amateur competition to a world class musical performance.

Exaggeration? Perhaps. But I was reminded of an experience I had many years ago... I was a working student for a three-day event rider on the Canadian Equestrian Team. Whilst acting as her groom for one particular competition, I had a chance to watch part of the cross country course. It was a particularly nasty combination of jumps, starting with a solid fence in the middle of a water hazard followed immediately by a very imposing series of upward steps. Almost every horse refused the steps (assuming they made it past the water). The spectators got into a rhythm with their cheers: an encouraging "c'mon, C'mon, C'MON" as the horse and rider approached the steps, then a disappointed "awww" as they refused. When my rider appeared, the chant started anew: "c'mon, C'mon, C'MON"... then absolute silence as her horse cleared the steps effortlessly on their first approach. I still remember the incredible pride that I felt, wanting to point and proclaim loudly, "I'm with her." Which is a very long-winded way of saying that I felt that way today when Jasmine sang... "I'm with her."

Aside from Jasmine, my favourite song was "Time to Kill" written by Danielle French and performed by Chantal Vitalis. I was also impressed by "Wrecking Ball" by John Wort Hannam (it was the first song of the day that made use of the all powerful metaphor rather than being entirely literal... an important lyrical approach, in my opinion) and "Dance With Me, Dad" by Heather Blush (though I was more infatuated with her smoky vocals than the song itself).

The results... (drum roll, please)...

First place went to "Blackfoot Bones" by Therese Lanz (an unusual song that had the distinction of uniqueness, though I didn't really enjoy it all that much).
Second place to Jasmine Whenham (yay!)
Third place to "Open Book" by Chris Vail (I vaguely remember enjoying the lyrics to this song, but it don't really remember the song itself).
And the three discretionary prizes went to the three songs mentioned in the previous paragraph.

So be sure to watch for Jasmine at the Calgary Folk Festival where she'll be performing her song on the Ship & Anchor stage (and hopefully her website will be finished in time for the hordes of internet searches that are bound to be made after that debut).

Labels: horses, music, pop culture