A dismal audience was on hand at Average Joes, Thursday, July 11 for Kitchener based multi-instrumentalist duo a New Ground.
Granted they were competing with Shakespeare in the Park’s production of Macbeth, and the always popular Thursday open mic at the Slice , but most particularly the first night of Street Wheelers at Exhibition Park.
But they deserved a bigger audience, especially considering how good they are.
The duo, consisting of fiddle player/singer/ drummer/ mandolinist and guitarist Claryssa Webb and singer/guitarist/drummer Ryan Dugal.
They began their second set with Webb playing fiddle and Dugal accompanying her on “the D Set, because it is in the key of D,” which included a handful of Celtic and French Canadian fiddle powered instrumentals.
They followed that up by Dugal giving his guitar to Webb for a Fleetwood Mac cover that showed Webb was a talented as a vocalist as she was a fiddle player and everything else.
Dugal added harmonies and drums for that song.
He picked up guitar again for one of several more pop tinged originals, this one called “The Maze.”
They took advantage of the pretty much empty room to try out a few new originals form their upcoming new CD.
These were also more in the pop vein, with Dugal singing in his impassioned tenor voice, which was reminiscent of the likes of Dan Mangan and Michael Bernard Fitzgerald. He even hit some impressive falsetto notes.
But even more impressive was Webb playing fiddle and then a weird looking mandolin while simultaneously playing drums and singing harmonies.
They wound down the show with a couple of spirited covers of Yo Yo Ma and then some Bjork, which showcased Webb’s impressive fiddle and her voice on the Bjork cover.
