Layah Jane & Oliver Johnson join Brian MacMillan @ KAC
Posted on April 22, 2008 - Filed Under Concert Schedule, News, Review, & Feedback
Layah Jane & Oliver Johnson join Brian MacMillan on stage at Knox Acoustic Cafe on July 12th, 2008.
This is Brian MacMillan’s second visit to Knox Acoustic Cafe. Last year Brian’s intimate and engaging performance thrilled the audience and won him a legion of new fans. His solo show featured, among other things, songs from his stellar CD “Let The Darkness Go”. This year, B-Mac will be joined by Layah Jane and Oliver Johnson.
Brian MacMillan: Once in a while you come across a musician who restores and refreshes your faith in music. It usually catches you offguard; found in some obscure place on some random night when you weren’t expecting it. With original music rooted in folk, pop, and even a hint of reggae – Brian accomplishes the task that most great musicians do; creating a new sound, a new genre, one that weaves in and honors all the great music that has come before while making it genuinely his own.
Layah Jane: Soul-Folk songstress Layah Jane is a hearty young musician with a mission. With soulful vocals and a poetic, articulate tongue, Layah’s sound recalls Joni Mitchell, Rickie Lee Jones and Ani Difranco, with a resonance all her own. Both piano and guitar became tools for writing and accompaniment as Layah began to create and perform original material at the age of thirteen. Since the completion of her first demo in 2000, Layah has been invited to play countless shows and festival showcases including the Rochester International Jazz Festival, Winterfolk Festival, North by Northeast Music Festival, Toronto Indie Music Week, Toronto City Roots Festival, the Ottawa Folk Festival, and New Music West.
Oliver Johnson: A musician from an early age, Oliver Johnson attended Humber College’s jazz guitar program, and has been recruited as a guitarist by some of Canada’s finest artists. He has contributed musically to the live and recorded work of Feist, Esthero, Serena Ryder, Ivana Santilli, Peter Katz, One Step Beyond, Wade O. Brown, Divine Brown, God Made Me Funky, Carlos Morgan, The Pocket Dwellers, Choclair, Layah Jane, and Brian Macmillan, to name a few. In addition to his work as a guitarist and producer, Oliver is Creative Director and co-owner of The Hive studio in Toronto, where he has been composing and producing music for radio and TV for the past decade.
