It was a two for the price of one deal at the Estevan Art Gallery and Museum’s After Dark concert on Friday night.
Melanie Hankewich, a.k.a. Belle Plaine, teamed up with her real-life partner Blake Berglund to provide a musically-packed evening for the attentive audience.
The addition of bass player/vocalist Elizabeth Curry, keyboardist/vocalist Jeremy Sauer and guitarist Bryce Lewis lent even more musical excitement as the musicians comfortably switched in and out or played all together, depending on the musical needs. Belle Plaine was in Estevan, as part of a mini-tour of southeast Saskatchewan prior to the official launching of her new album, Unrequited Love, slated for the Artesian in Regina this weekend. She willingly shared a couple of songs from the album while Berglund shuffled out a few new songs of his own.
Both Berglund and Hankewich are accomplished storytellers which adds flavour to their original songs, providing some background tales to go along with the music.
The two songsters offered up a number of duets to open with Already Gone, Rodeo and Crooked Old Earth. They even combined for a cover of Summer Wages, a tune made famous by Ian Tyson.
Berglund’s ode to the Ocean Man, his van that carried he and his friend on an unplanned misadventure across half of Canada years ago, was also a treat, as was the eight-minute explanation of the trek that ultimately ended in the Maritimes.
The couple explained that the song Are We Good, was the first one they wrote together. Berglund later explained that since their musical genres are different, they usually write their music and lyrics separately, although Hankewich noted some of her musical renderings of late have contained a distinct country and western tone.
“We’re slowly learning to write together. Sometimes it just depends on the time of day,” said Berglund with a laugh. They do help each other “work out the kinks,” said Hankewich, a native of the Rose Valley/Quill Lakes region of Saskatchewan while Berglund hails from Kennedy, in Saskatchewan’s southeast.
“The last time I was on our ranch I went for a ride. The horse got crow-hopping and I fell off and committed the sin of letting go of the reins. Had to chase the horse around a bit, so when people ask me if I’m rodeo material … no I’m not, although I tried it,” he joked.
Belle Plaine’s album features soul-felt songs such as Advice from a Vicar and Crazy Arms and she said all the songs were recorded in one night during a live performance in Regina with a seven-piece backup band, which was highly unusual since most live albums are crafted during two or three performances in front of audiences in the same venue.
After the album launching in Regina, the couple will be off to Saskatoon and Winnipeg.
“We still try to do some writing together,” said Hankewich, “trying to force the chemistry sometimes, and we focus on what works. It’s a sensitive process, tough but constructive at times. Then we’ll break off the co-writing things and then get back at it again.”
“Ya, it can be a challenge at times because we’re also writing for a band and I have some honky tonk and Mel comes from folk and rock backgrounds , so we work around the music and my guitar man Bryce (Lewis) produces some great music, while we work on lyrics. It’s crazy, but it works.”
Berglund laid out the first half of the evening’s program following the introductory duets with Belle Plaine providing the bulk of the musical offerings for the second half with her bass player and harmony partner Curry.
The evening ended with Belle Plaine and Berglund teaming up again along with all three backup musicians for some final duets, which he said later, “was a lot of work for me because I just couldn’t do harmony before. I had to keep working at it.”
Belle Plaine’s offering of Remember When Our Love Was New, Radio Dreams, Good Heart and Frozen, a tribute to her mother, brought her part the evening to a close. The couple concluded with their duo musical meanderings of Town to Town, which has got them a lot of radio and cyberplay over the past few months and an encore rendition of Crazy About A Mercury.
Hankewich then said she could now announce she has been offered an opportunity to appear with the Regina Symphony Orchestra and their new director this coming fall. “I’m very excited about that. It’s a long way off yet, but I’m sure it will be one of the year’s highlights for me,” she told the Estevan audience.
