Christine Fellows @ Divan Orange

Upon arriving at the entrance to Divan Orange for the Christine Fellows show, I was amazed to see no one outside smoking. What did this mean? Did it mean the show was so great that it prevented those that love to fill their lungs with smoke and nicotine from indulging? That’s it; it had to be because it was a mesmerizing show.

Well as I ventured inside, I immediately saw the reason. Divan Orange was practically empty. It is fair to say that this venue can hold a capacity of 200 hundred people, making it not the smallest venue in the city, however they were lucky if they even had 30 people there to see this folk singer from Winnipeg.

This was not because Christine Fellows is an untalented performer. I can safely say this because the moment she hit the stage and started to play, her melodic sounds compelled our friends and I to stop everything, even sipping from our pints.

She opened the show with her melancholic ditty “The Spinster’s Almanac” off her fourth studio album, Nevertheless, an album that was inspired by American poet Marianne Moore, who never married.

All her albums follow a storyline and she uses a multitude of instruments to help her express the story. Her most recent album, Femmes Chez Nous, tells the story of different women all surrounded by different bodies of water. On the album she uses beautiful instruments to illustrate her stories, such as trumpets, trombones, violins, cellos and a piano. It’s complicated and quite pricey task to invite all these musicians along with her; instead she sat at the piano for the whole show and had only two cellists to accompany her. Nevertheless they still managed to tell the stories very well.

That being said she played a wonderful mix of songs off all five of her albums. From her most recent album she played the melodic “Mile 137” as well as “Dragonfly,” just to name a few.

So what was the reason for such a small turnout? Well, I believe that she desperately needs to get a new promoter. There was absolutely no reason for anyone not to have enjoyed this show. True there was no major moment in this show – she is a folksinger after all – but Christine Fellows gave the audience what they paid for by proving that she is a consummate artist that could take them to another place and time.

-Rebecca M hosts Canucks Kick It every Wednesday from 5-6pm