The sidewalk in front of the 400 seat Mermaid Theatre in Windsor, Nova Scotia was full of home town supporters lined up to see local favorite, Terra Spencer perform her first show home after a 5 week tour across Canada with fellow Nova Scotian, Ben Caplan - and what a homecoming it was.
Terra took the stage first and sat behind her keyboard. She was all smiles, and we got the sense that she was really enjoying taking it all in. As we discovered that night, it's a big deal when someone from Nova Scotia "goes away". Apparently it's an even bigger deal when they come back home.
If you've never heard Terra Spencer sing before, she has one of those voices that comes out of nowhere. It's soft and delicate, but by the first hook you can really feel the power she can bring. Terra's set was folky, jazzy, storytelling through song. Being "from away" we may have missed some of the subtleties, but her style of songwriting - the mix of brutal honesty, comedy, love and loss come straight from her Nova Scotia roots. We loved how often places in her beloved province were mentioned in her lyrics, and it really felt like we were experiencing something uniquely 'east coast'.
After Terra's set and a brief intermission, Ben Caplan took the stage. Ben is an artist we've known about for a long time. We were introduced to his music over a decade ago and have followed his trajectory online, but we'd never seen him live until that night. We were excited to experience the legendary Ben Caplan show in the legendary Mermaid Theatre.
How do you describe Ben Caplan's voice? He seems to have a dozen or more in his repertoire. How do you describe Ben Caplan's style? The range of genres and emotion Ben delivered during this solo performance were nothing short of amazing. Ben's storytelling between songs was seamless. He is a true crowd pleaser. We laughed, we cried. It was something special. Thank you, Ben.
We'd like to give a big thank you to Terra Spencer and Ben Caplan for a wonderful evening of music -and thanks for the autographs, Terra!.
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