Music and Friends at the Crossing Pub

Julie Druker | Dec 02, 2015

A sold out sign was posted on the Crossing pub’s front door at the Feral Five's seasonal come back show on November 26 in Sharbot Lake.

In addition to the band, the evening also featured guest musician, Bob Miller, who is likely best known locally for his historical reenactments and for reproducing and restoring historical artifacts and paraphernalia. Not as well known is the fact that Miller has performed as a professional folk singer since the 1970s. For years he played the folk circuit in Toronto, and all across southern Ontario and Upper New York State before retiring from the limelight and settling down with his family here 22 years ago.

It was while performing back in the day that Miller, who has always played on his own guitars, Celtic mandolins and dulcimers, began getting commissions to build instruments for other players, which he still does to this day.

Miller stuck to this long time tradition and came armed to the show with three of his own guitars, each tuned to three different modal tunings, which he said “saves me a lot of time on stage and helps to move things along.” He performed a number of traditional British Isles folk classics from what must be a very impressive folk repertoire.

Miller has a very laid back and natural approach to his music and he opened with “P is for Paddy”, a traditional Irish folk tune. He was joined on stage by the Balogh sisters, Meghan and Kaitlin, who have been playing fiddle with Miller “since they were in their single digit birth days”. Their seamless sound as a trio proves the fact that years of musical sharing between players makes for very easy listening. The three made their way through a number of offerings that included the classic instrumental “The Butterfly”, an upbeat jig, the more modern “Rose Hill Fair” and “Caledonia”, a traditional British Isles folk tune that tells of the first coal mines set up in eastern Canada. The three closed the set with a cover of Joni Mitchell's Circle Game with an explanation by Miller: “just because I really like that song”.

Newly called “Music and Friends”, the Feral Five will return to The Crossing Pub on the fourth Thursdays of February, March and April and will be joined onstage by some notable new and old favorite musical friends.

The band opened the evening with front man Terry Reynolds performing a rousing version of The Tragically Hip's “Ahead by a Century”. The band also performed a number of firsts time covers that included “Radioactive” sung by Jim MacPherson, Alice Cooper's “Be My Lover” sung by Terry Reynolds and drummer Dave Limber's singing Los Lobos' “Evangeline”.

Next, the Feral Five reassembled their gear and cleared away a few of the front row tables to make room for the dancers who like to get their groove on for the band's always upbeat final set. The tunes that brought the crowd to their feet were ”I Want You to Want Me”, “Runaway” and the show's epic closer, Jeff Healy's "Can You See the Light", which featured Dennis Larocque's amazing guitar solos.