Chicken: Powerful Soul and Blues from Canada at Café Verkehart

Café Verkehrt in Oberhof hosted award-winning Canadian singer and songwriter Ann Wirand on stage on Friday. With two of his accompanists Kelly Kinjo on bass and Eli Mercier on drums, he formed a musical top trio that warmed the audience from the first minute.

The sympathetic Canadian told of her second song, “It’s Happening”, that it was performed with a school class, and someone in the audience spoke to her, took the school class to the studio and recorded the song. Did. In general, she entertained the Oberhof audience with short anecdotes and sprinkling here and there some German vocabulary that she picked up on her tours over the years.

every note was correct

The trio was confident with expressive soul and blues, Virend’s voice was virtuoso, used skillfully and every note was perfect. The studying musician also cut a good figure on the keyboard. Because of the pandemic, Virend told guests, the tour had already been postponed twice and she herself used the time from her porch to write songs and play 60 concerts on Sundays. “Free,” he said in German.

The song “Flags” was sung by bassist Katie Kinjo and featured a bit of reggae rhythm. With her, Virend then sang the very soulful song “If You’re Here”. Before the break, the audience was allowed to sing and the applause from the first set sounded like a lot more people there than it actually was. The second part of the concert featured a solo piece by the artist with “Promise, Promise”, during which the gentlemen left the stage and the audience could once again enjoy Virend’s vocal prowess.

In addition to the songs from his new album “Everybody Matters”, there was a special surprise with Otis Redding’s hit “Respect”. Outspoken, she was in no way inferior to the soul icon Aretha Franklin, who made the hit famous. Pure enthusiasm of the guests. So it came as no surprise that the artist was able to encourage audiences to sing along to the Bruce Springsteen classic “Hungry Heart.”

In short, a successful evening. It is only a pity that more music lovers did not find their way into Café Verkehrt, which was only less frequent. It was worth it.