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BETH ORTON
Danforth Music Hall (Toronto, ON)
July 8, 2008

(NO DEPRESSION.NET) -- As Beth Orton took the stage at this aged and recently restored venue, a frightening thunderstorm was descending on Toronto, so it's tempting to resort to a bad pun and declare there was electricity in the air. But for at least a few anxious moments, it appeared the unleashed electricity might be more than metaphorical.

What at first looked like a delicate stage-lighting effect -- little descending sparkles captured by spotlights at stage rear -- quickly became evidence of a badly leaking roof over the proscenium. Torrents of water also slid under the front-of-house exits and crept toward the power cables along the floor as ushers nervously mopped up the mess.

Though she offered a blithe apology for a late start ("We've had a bit of a flood"), none of it seemed to rattle Orton, who appears determined that her current eight-date acoustic tour of Canada and the United States will push-start stalled promotional duties for her most recent record, 2006's Comfort Of Strangers. That sortie was interrupted when she discovered (upon her last visit to Toronto, as it turns out) that she was with child. Daughter Nancy is now 19 months old, and mother and daughter are able to spend short stints away from each other to permit the tour.

Seeing Orton in this format, with only multi-instrumentalist Rob Moose accompanying on guitar, mandolin, fiddle and piano, afforded an opportunity to observe the songwriter's work deconstructed, and to remark on what an unlikely route she has blazed in modern music. Having begun as a vocalist supporting electronica practitioners such as Red Snapper, William Orbit and Chemical Brothers, she has arrived as an example of British folk in the mode of Sandy Denny, Linda Thompson or Pentangle.

The early part of the two-set performance dwelt on studiously folkie Comfort Of Strangers material such as "Absinthe", "Heartland Truckstop", "Rectify" and "Conceived". But hearing "She Cries Your Name" and "Someone's Daughter" (from 1997's Trailer Park), as well as "Paris Train" (from 2002's Daybreaker), shorn of the trippy beats and weird keyboard noises, it became clear these songs were always strong enough to stand on their own. In fact, Orton's entire body of work, when presented in the acoustic format, sounds very much of a piece, whatever evolution she may have undergone in the studio.

Although she complained of voice problems and hit the odd clam accompanying herself on guitar, Orton seemed in uncommonly good humor and particularly took delight in skewering herself. At one point, she announced a family member was in the crowd, yet was left red-faced when it was clear the relative was a no-show; later, she asked the audience to check if she'd accidentally tucked her skirt into her underpants before coming onstage.

But when it came time to lean into her strongest material -- Comfort Of Strangers' "Heart Of Soul", Central Reservation's "Devil Song" and Daybreaker's "Carmella" -- she was more than up to the task. The crowd was pin-drop quiet during the songs, and Orton's voice, which catches and flutters in mesmerizing ways, rang out beautifully in this setting. Although her tantalizing offer to perform a brand-new song was sideswiped by an audience request for "Feel To Believe", the highlight of the night was her cover of Karen Dalton's "Katie Cruel" (a track she performed with Brit folk legend Bert Jansch on his recent album Black Swan). If there was any doubt about the depth of Orton's feel for the hardest of hardcore folk music, they were settled for good with this chilling rendition.

-- PAUL CANTIN
Copyright c. 2008 No Depression Inc. and/or Paul Cantin.