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Written by Cynthia Fridsma
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Amsterdam, March 20, 2006
On
March 20, 2006 at 8:15 P.m. Heather hit the stage on the Pepsi Stage in
Amsterdam, which was totally sold out. I didn’t know what to expect
from an ‘intimate evening with Heather Nova’, would it have anything to
do with the SorrowJoy, the book full with beautiful poems, written by
Heather or would it be something else?
After all, from the
information I found at heathernova.com I knew that you could buy
Heather’s Sorrowjoy CD only during concerts. I expected that she would
do some poems during her performance with a stripped down band
containing two members: Fiona Pears, who happens to be an amazing
violist and Ian Tilley a great ‘piano man’.
It was busy and
all the seats were taken and there was not a real opening act either.
Fiona and Ian started to warm the audience and after playing two songs
the crowd went crazy when Heather hit the stage. The combo isn’t
complete without Heather . . .
Heather, Fiona and Ian took off
with Gloomy Sunday(1), which was a great choice by Heather to start
with. The combination of the Piano, Violin and Heather’s golden voice
melted every heart in the hall.
After Gloomy Sunday Heather
took her guitar and started to play ‘You left me a song’ and then
Heather introduced ‘I miss the sky(2)’, as follows: “... and some think
that she died on the sea and some think that she lived out her days on
a tiny dessert island and I wrote this song imagining I was her.” The
combination of Heather’s singing and Fiona’s violin was great and a
pleasure for every music lover!
Then she started to play ‘This body, Heal, Paper Cup and Mothertongue(3).
For
me it was the first time ever that I saw Heather doing this song a song
that I’ve always liked by the way and I did enjoy every minute of it.
It was an amazing good combination to hear this song with a violin.
After
Mothertongue(3), Heather did ‘Motherland, Done drifting, Winterblue and
All I need than there was a break and during the break I saw Massimo(4)
and said Hi. Last year I saw Massimo in London.
Than we had a
small conversation with Axel(5) and his wife Hannie and we talked a
little about Mothertongue, and the mailing list too, because Axel told
me that he knew a girl who made an African translation of Mothertongue.
Too bad that she didn’t want to publish it for the CD Project because
I’m sure that Heather would love to hear the South African version of
the song.
By the way, I almost forgot to mention that I’ve bought the Sorrowjoy CD too.
When
we went back to the hall for the second part of the show, we saw Perry
Black too(6). After two songs performed only by Fiona Pears and Ian
Tilley, came Heather back on stage and started to read the poem ‘the
bad blood and the rose’.
It sure was great (Heather used a special sound effects box) which gave the right atmosphere to the poem(7).
After the poem it was ‘back to business’ with the songs: “Avalanche, These walls, Storm,
Water from wine, Fool for you, I'm alive, Walk this world, Walking higher, What a feeling
The sun will always rise and a song from Neil Young: Like a hurricane.
Everybody had a good time and yes, Heather Nova is simply the best!
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