For the concert review, I attended the Great Canadian Songwriter's Double Bill featuring Ian Tamblyn and Ron Hynes. From walking into the location even before the concert started, I could tell it would be extremely casual. The atmosphere was one of relaxation and informality which could be seen by the way the room was set up. Although risers appeared in the back for the audience to sit on, most people were seated around large tables each complete with a tea light on top of them conducive to people talking with one another. The audience attending the concert also added to the hassle-free feeling, most of them being quite a bit older than myself, but many where happy to see so many young faces and questioned us why we were attending the concert, always with a smile on their face. The atmosphere continued during the concert as the artists performing interacted quite a bit with the audience, telling stories, jokes, or getting the audience to join in with the song. Each artist took a different approach in the way they interacted with the audience. Ian Tamblyn chose to sit while performing; making it seem like it was just a gathering of friends where one person just picks up a guitar to entertain the others in the room, while Ron Hynes chose to stand, giving the feeling of an actual concert. The environment seemed perfect for traditional Canadian folk music, since the origins of this genre was very informal which will be discussed later after a quick musical analysis of the concert.
Basic music analysis .
Ian Tamblyn had very simple instrumentation, as he was the only person on stage performing during his set, very typical of traditional Canadian folk music. He alternated between different guitars, yet also mixed it up by performing a few numbers on both a hammered dulcimer and a wooden flute. The pitch of his voice was that of a very rich tenor. The timbre of his voice was a warm, natural sound; overall, it was a very unpolished sound as if he were just singing in his home rather then to an audience.