Ellen McIlwaine is coming, has new CD

Reasons to see Ellen McIlwaine: she scats in Japanese and sometimes yodels (in the universal language of yodelling). She plays a mean slide guitar. She turned me and various other fans onto Joseph Spence and the odd blues variants of the Bahamas (and has been known to cover odd songs from the Nonesuch anthology, The Real Bahamas). She's a helluva storyteller and her version of "Can't Find My Way Home" rivals the Swans' (and both may well be better than the original). I have not yet heard her new recording, Mystic Bridge. Though I often find recordings of Ms. McIlwaine "nicen her up" a bit too much, she assures me that this one is "recorded live off the floor, so it's a slice of the real thing (with a few overdubs)." Soundclips available at the link above. Meantime, I highly recommend y'all check her out at the WISE Hall, at 1882 Adanac, at 9PM on October 6th; tickets are $20 at the usual places, or call(604) 254 - 5858. Cassius Khan will accompany Ellen on tablas, and David Roundell will be opening on -- hey, Heather, take note -- the accordion. It's not my usual fare of avant-garde improv and political punk, but Ellen is pretty damn unique and I absolutely loved her last performance here, as part of an all-night event at the Western Front... I wonder if she listened to those Kan Mikami and Tomokawa Kazuki CDs I sent her? She should...