Harder than Joplin

[michelej1]

[I found this tribute singer's comments about Christine interesting]


The Miami Herald, July 24, 2008


CONCERTS: Rumour has it Fleetwood Mac's in town
Classic Albums Live recreates the sonic experience of landmark albums with exacting detail.


HOWARD COHEN, [email protected]

Get Craig Martin or Leslea Keurvorst talking about pop music and the two self-professed "geeks" spin happily on like a 33 1/3-rpm record on 45, tossing out trivia on life-altering albums with glee.

Keurvorst, for instance, launches into an analytical discussion about the deeper meaning behind the barely audible four-letter word that Lindsey Buckingham utters on Fleetwood Mac's The Chain.

Both are members of Classic Albums Live, a Toronto-based touring concert series in which a core group of 36 musicians and vocalists, plus a pool of about 100 others, travel through North America for 300 shows a year to expertly recreate landmark albums like the Beatles' Abbey Road, Led Zeppelin's I through IV and Fleetwood Mac's Rumours down to the most minute detail.

"We're like an orchestra that would do Mozart, but we do classic Led Zeppelin, Fleetwood Mac, Pink Floyd. We deliver albums exactly as we heard them while growing up," Martin says. But the idea isn't to mimic the famous bands' visual image.

"It's music by fans for fans," adds Keurvorst from her room at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. She's performing at the Rumours show Thursday through Saturday, swapping leads with bandmate Mia Sheard at the complex's Paradise Live. Elsewhere, she's handled the high harmonies on recreations of Queen's A Night at the Opera, Boston's self-titled debut and, earlier this season at Paradise Live, earned raves for nailing the soaring The Great Gig in the Sky from Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon.

In August, Keurvorst takes on Janis Joplin's Pearl album at Paradise. How can a person possibly embody Joplin's raw, bluesy wail? "I'm smoking more than usual," she jokes. But it's actually Christine McVie's mellow vocal tone that proves her biggest challenge. 'I have a high voice; Christine's an alto and getting those low notes -- a dark, low voice with no vibrato which is unnatural for me -- and re-create that authentically is physically hard. They ask me, `How can you sing those crazy Queen harmonies?' I say, 'Try singing [McVie's] Songbird three nights a week!' That's killer and yet it's such a simple song."

The concert is a straight run-through of the featured album with no on-stage patter to break the mood. Afterward, the group performs a set of "outros," of music celebrating that night's act. The outros are a bit looser, with audience interaction, but the musicians still adhere to the original arrangements. Sometimes, however, it's difficult to not get swept away on a feel-good, locomotive groove like Go Your Own Way and extend the live rendition slightly beyond its album fade-out.

"I tell the guys, `If we're in the groove you can go, but you have to stay within the confines of what a Lindsey Buckingham or a Jimmy Page would do. You can't start freestyling. This is sacred music, it's not our job to mess with it," Martin says.

Martin, 46, founded Classic Albums Live five years ago to pay homage to the great music he'd known growing up. "I was playing in cover bands and I was always upset about the lack of attention to detail in the music. It was a cash gig but it made me feel terrible about my life. I love classic rock. It's a part of my DNA."

While listening to the radio, he heard two songs back-to-back from The Rolling Stones' Exile on Main Street.

"By the time I hit Toronto on this four-hour drive I came up with this idea -- taking classic albums and doing them note-for-note using the best musicians." Martin produces Classic Albums Live shows, signs off on album picks and performs Mick Jagger's vocals.

"Sometimes I'll go off the beaten track," he says, citing a performance of Michael Jackson's Thriller. After all, it's called Classic Albums Live, not Classic Rock Albums Live."

Recent shows have featured '90s albums by Radiohead (OK Computer) and Nirvana's Nevermind.

"The generations are rediscovering this music," Martin says. "We should all have The Dark Side of the Moon on during Thanksgiving dinner instead of easy-listening Muzak. I'm still a hippie in my head and think that music will save us all."