On the Road Again
Live Reviews:

Freakwater
September 23, 1999
Horseshoe Tavern, Toronto

At a time when rock 'n roll is all but irrelevant and technologized music places directness of expression always at one remove, thank goodness we have Freakwater. Touring in support of their new Thrill Jockey release, End Time,Freakwater have left their flirtations with bluegrass behind them and settled into a straightforward traditional country sound defined by the presence of drums and a very tasteful pedal-steel guitar. This shift in direction led the band to concentrate on material from the new album, rather than giving longtime fans the pleasure of hearing old chestnuts. While a few folks may have been disappointed, the introduction of those new songs put all the attention of the room on the voices of Catherine Irwin and Janet Beveridge Bean. The harmonizing of Irwin's straining-the-note twang and Bean's pure choir honed voice is as much Freakwater's signature as is their willingness to turn pain and sorrow into song. Yet it is only in a live setting that the voices of Irwin and Bean can be fully appreciated, because in singing together each must be wholly attuned to the other. Irwin's voice becomes more insistent and direct, and Bean's purer and more beautiful. In fact, from the opener, "I've Been Good," through "When the Leaves Begin to Fall" to the closing encore of the their classic "Old Drunk Friend," the entire band was as fully engaged by the new material and the bigger sound they were able to produce. Assured, but playing music that had not become the production of bored reflex brought on by repeated performance, each member of the band listened as much as they played, which made the show less about country-fied nostalgia and more about good honest music.