November 4, 5, 6

(Published in Mosaic, March 2011)

Spoken-word artist C.R. Avery’s dynamic mix of blues, poetry and rock and roll, backed by local blues/jazz band Big Bad Wolf, delighted an appreciative crowd at the Williamsford Mill Great Books and Café Saturday evening, January 22. Having enjoyed his performance last November at the Words Aloud 7 Festival at the Durham Art Gallery, in which he sang poetic verse while simultaneously beatboxing, pounding the piano and adding wild harmonica, I was pleased to learn that Words Aloud artistic director Liz Zetlin had arranged to bring him back for an extra performance as a thank you to their loyal audiences and supporters. C.R. has been described as Bob Dylan in the body of Iggy Pop, colliding with Little Walter, the Beastie Boys and Allen Ginsberg.

As audience member writer Bonnie Gardiner told me in an email, "It was worth braving the minus 21 degree weather to be welcomed by the warmth of the full house at the Williamsford Mill. A true performer, C.R. Avery melted away the winter chills with his satirical and spontaneous humour that he combined with mournful harmonica blues."

The favourable acoustics of the Mill allowed us to fully appreciate the poetic intricacies of the lyrics for which he is so well known. “He sculpts words. Like butter. I don't recall thinking that about any other poet,” is how it was put by another writer in the audience, Dawna Proudman, a Words Aloud co-artistic director in the festival’s founding years. References to the always adventure-filled, sometimes lonely, life of a touring performer throughout Canada, the U.S. and Europe, sympathetic observations on the pathos and grit of downtown street life in his home city of East Vancouver, and personal relationships were themes explored in witty and unexpected turns of phrase. Musical style ranged from softly lyrical to raw and dynamic.

In Dawna’s words: “CR's intense love of the blues and his enthusiasm for hitting the right word, like the right note, punching home line after line, makes him a mesmerizing performer. While he played his words, piano and harmonicas, he simultaneously cued the musicians. The result was extremely inclusive. Watching the band's response to CR's words added an intimate sense of theatre to the night.”

I was intrigued by C.R.’s beatboxing and the vocal control required. If like me (before the performance), you have no idea what beatboxing is, here’s Wikipedia’s definition: “Beatboxing is a form of vocal percussion which primarily involves the art of producing drum beats, rhythm, and musical sounds using one's mouth, lips, tongue and voice. It may also involve singing, vocal imitation of turntablism, the simulation of horns, strings, and other musical instruments.” One of C.R.’s pieces Saturday evening was a tour de force of the sounds of boxing punches (the sport) and sung narrative verse about . . . a boxer, of course.

I arrived about an hour early to grab a pre-performance bite to eat at the Mill’s Café, and was thrilled to find that C.R. and Big Bad Wolf were meeting for the first time and rehearsing. They launched into a quick run-through of program excerpts as C.R. showed how he would cue them. It was an interesting behind-the-scenes look at how quickly these professionals could pull together the music and the theatre for a seamless program.

And, it was a nice accompaniment to the homemade vegetarian lasagna from Mill owner/chef Tamara Bolton’s menu featuring ‘comfort food’ – perfect for a cold night.

Big Bad Wolf is made up of musicians Brian O’Rourke on electric guitar, Joel Dawson on upright bass and Simon Jo-Keeling on drums. Brian is the music director and driving force behind the band and its arrangements. He says his love of music spans many genres but he's chosen to play the blues for its authentic sound and because it is at the root of most of the music we hear today. Brian tries to find original recordings for all their music selections and then takes the song and puts his own interpretation on it.

Brian told me that after about 20 minutes of rehearsal, in the brief time left before the show, they talked about music: L'il Walter, Willie Dickson, Chuck Berry and all the greats. They knew then they were talking the same language. Brian, Joel and Simon all count improvisation among their musical skills, Brian and Joel having developed their expertise in Humber College’s Jazz Program.

Brian says the name Big Bad Wolf was a bit of a coincidence, but the connection to the great blues master Howlin' Wolf was not missed.

The next day about 15 showed up for the advertised workshop with C.R. Some of us were interested in what we could learn about writing creatively from this wizard with words, some in performance, and two nine-year-old boys said they’d heard that “an awesome beatboxer” would be there and they hoped to learn how to beatbox. How did all that turn out? Dawna: “I can't imagine anyone else running a writing workshop, giving beat-box lessons to kids (big and little), and then improvising on the piano as the writers performed their poetry, all in the space of a two hour "workshop."

Bonnie Gardiner had this to say: “Working with C.R. at the Sunday noon workshop was as crisp as the weather. C.R.'s unpretentiousness was refreshing. His suggestion of killing clichés in writing by uniquely pairing words together gave my pen new life. I was awed by his ability to improvise and respond in the moment to the written words being presented by participants."

For me, a sometime poet with an uninformed affection for blues, C.R.’s brief exercise introducing one of the basic patterns of blues lyrics has given me a new structure to play with in future writing. Write a line, repeat it, and add a rhyming line, giving three lines in all. During the following performance section of the workshop, it was amazing, entertaining and gratifying to listen to the wonderful short blues pieces the participants had composed and now sang or spoke to C.R.’s piano accompaniment.

The beatboxing performance by the two boys and C.R. was pretty awesome too.

C.R. Avery has donated recordings of his live performance to Words Aloud, as he says, “ to entice donations for the festival and as a thank you for the work your community does in keeping art alive.” They will be available for download soon, on the Words Aloud website.