European audiences love Americana and traditional music.
It is a pleasant surprise for Lisa MacIsaac and Brenley MacEachern, of Juno nominated roots duo Madison Violet, who are in the middle of their sixth tour of Europe.They will be returning to the Slice, Nov. 25.
“It’s been amazing so fa
r. We had one day off and we had to spend seven hours driving, ” said MacIsaac from a stop in Austria.
“Most of the shows have been sold out. So it is good to see the growth after six tours,” she continued, crediting the power of social media for their popularity.
“Proportionally there isn’t a lot of interest in bluegrass and traditional music, but there are 80 million people in a country which isn’t even as big as Ontario. So a group of the people of them will find out where people playing in the genre they are interested in. They’ll find out where they are playing and they‘ll all get together,” she continued.
“And we’ll see the same faces at seven of 12 different shows. So it is very neat to see that.
The group, touring as a trio, recently filmed a DVD in Cologne.
“A lot of people came because they wanted to be part of that Madison Violet experience” MacEachern added, noting the audiences are very generous and helpful.
“ We left with two huge bags of gifts, like chocolates socks and t-shirts. Brenley tweeted she lost her favourite pair of socks while doing laundry, so they brought us some,” MacIsaac recalled.
They just released a new CD “The Good in Goodbye,” yet the crowd already knew most of the songs already.
“It had just been released in Germany two weeks ago,” MacIsaac enthused, adding the audience already had their favourites. One of the most popular is an old bluegrass song “Cindy, Cindy.”
“That’s a traditional bluegrass song from the 1800s, which we always wanted to record, but never got around to,” she said.
“Woodshed” is another favourites as is “Crying.”
“English isn’t even their first language, yet they know all the words. so it is pretty nice to see them mouthing all the words before you have even released the CD,” she added.
The live show in Europe, which will be pretty much the same set when they return to Canada, mostly consists of the CD.
“We try to play every one of the the songs on the CD which we have been playing live for a couple years anyway. It is unusual for us because we usually choose our favourites from each of the CDs.”
The new CD is already charting on European charts.
“The response has been fantastic,” she said.
They are looking forward to returning home — for a few days.
“It will be nice to sleep in my own bed even if it is only for a few days,” MacEachern” said.
“But even if we’re flying to Alberta, it still feels like home when we’re in Canada,” she said.
There is a $15 cover for the show which is scheduled to begin at 9 p.m, Nov. 25.
