How the Book Fool was Trance-Fixed by Music

It has been quite a few months now, thirty and counting ...Long enough for time to have wrought it's wisdom in the tumult of my feelings...

At some point in february 2006 , sometime before my friend John George shed his mortal coil ; leaving this earth, one dares hope , for better clymes ; I wandered the streets of Montreal despondently... I had spent several nights and afternoons in his company as he slowly disappeared before my eyes, battle weary from his fight with cancer...

I sought refuge in a small Urban-Legendary Bistro, the Casa del Popolo on St. Laurent Blvd, Montreal. A hot cup of Café au Lait and a sandwich was all I hoped for... Instead I encountered the healing and soothing sounds of Hunter Eves voice and electronic keyboard... Truth be told I remember little of that night, other than that I left strengthened--I even bought the C.D. as I recall...thought perhaps I purchased it at the next show I was able to go to, a few months later...

In a sense the sequence of events matters little. The weeks up to and following my friends death are somewhat of a blurr... I cannot help but sense that perhaps his otherworldly hand guided me to the Casa not only that first night, but on several others as he patiently waited for death, and after his departure as well... I saw a klezmer band , and a presentation by some master storytellers , as well as some poetry readings...all of which he would have liked . His presence as well as that of his his Bookshop had been a lighthouse ( For he and the Argo on rue Ste. Catherine in Montreal were as one ) and had unfailingly guided me time and again , as They did many others , to safe harbour , through years of my navigating the darkness .

I have forgotten the details of most of that period of time except this : On to the small stage of my life burst the cosmic sounds of Hunter Eves.

What must be underlined is that in the years ending the old millenium and beginning the new , music was not much of a reality in my life... Years ago I had stopped listening to any thing ressembling music... let alone live performances. With the closing of the Golem Coffee house, the sporadic venue wherein I occasionally served coffee and which hosted many fine singers such as Garnet Rogers, Odetta , Rory Block and many others , my encounters with music were suspended ... There followed some years during which John George and his Bookshop remained my lighthouse , during which time I wandered the Dark Night of my Soul.

However , The two concerts of Hunter Eves I saw that year are Bookends to a time in which much happened (perhaps without happening ) in my life, and of which I frankly must say I remember little.

In this world of Sensory Feasting, we are bombarded everywhere by sound and visual stimuli-- much of which is pollution : but the fact That I remember Hunter Eves and her music and that I continue to listen to it, (at live shows whenever possible ) , is precisely the point herein. It may seem trivial to some that I forget much of everything that is thrown at me, this being a mere symptom of this worlds tendeny to create short attention spans and to encourage instant gratification.
That Hunter Eves I did NOT forget then- and do NOT now forget - is not so trivial to me, especially in light of this contemporary tendency -- It means, I think, that her music is qualitatively different from much of what we hear .

My friend was not fond of modernity-- Technology and all it's trappings bothered him. I think that despite his hungry and open mind he was suspicious of all things scientific, considering them faintly touched by Evil. "I don't like all this technology" he said at one point in his last few days, as I tried to distract him from his pain with some sort of CNN documentary... He wisely asked me to instead read to him from the Times Literary Supplement . The electronic music of his youthful neighbour whom he was fond of bemused him...

Yet , I think he would have liked the music of Hunter Eves, for in her style is found a pleasant conjunction of the classical with the new electric sounds of the sometimes alienating Cyber-world that is being brought forth daily. She demonstrates , in her performances, that the Muses of old continue to Be present , although the instruments may change.

Her shows, usually held in small venues are uncomplicated , and do not overwhelm. If her music lulls and soothes you as it does me , then I am sure you will be as enthusiastic a fan as I .

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To see where her next shows are and to hear some of her music visit her MySpace address :

http://www.myspace.com/huntereves

also : http://www.isound.com/hunter_eves