Roots Watch: Po’ Girl (Canada)

One act that I know I’m looking forward to for the upcoming Rhythm & Roots festival this bank holiday weekend are the four ladies of Po’ Girl. Their new album, ‘Home To You’ is out now and available to buy on iTunes
and Amazon. They’ll be making three appearances at the weekend, starting in the Club House on Saturday (4pm, €12), Cleere’s on Sunday (4pm, €12) and The Pumphouse on Monday (1pm, €12). I for one will be taking them in on their stop into Cleere’s on the Sunday.

Here’s what they say about themselves on MySpace…

These urban minstrels pen harmony drenched melodies to warm your toes. Take the bellows of the blues, the wail of the gypsy fiddle,punk-rock street poetry, a cajun love song and depression era jazz. Mix it all up and add some old r&b. This music is rich with musical influences, sweetness, grit and soul. in the brief two years this group of hard travelling musical iconoclasts has released two albums to critical acclaim while touring relentlessly, criss-crossing the United states and Canada in their sturdy old van “shaggy”.

They wowed audiences across the UK on two tours, and won over festival goers with their powerful, passionate and spirited live show. Their fantastically successful recent performances in Lugano, Switzerland at the celebrated “blues to bop” festival were a strong incentice for Po’Girl to do more european tours in the near future. The current line up of Po’Girl includes Allison Russell and Trish Klein (who co-founded the band together after discovering their shared passion for creaky prohibition-era jazz and blues) alongside virtuoso fiddler Diona Davies and multi-instrumentalist Awna Teixeira. These four ladies all sing, write and perform on a stunning array of instruments including banjo, clarinet, slide guitar, piano, accordion, gutbucket bass, harmonica, penny-whistle, mandolin,violin and much more. Backing them on drums is one of Vancouver’s top musical talents John Raham.

The Montreal Gazette describes their music as something that ‘catches your ear then rips out your heart’. They sound great and look fantastic and they’ve come highly recommended by both festival organisers and bands connected to KilkennyMusic.com. Looking for a quality act on the bank holiday weekend? Look no further…

Listen! Po’Girl - Skies Of Grey