Danser enthralls Arden crowd

Kat Danser has one of those robust voices, once heard and never forgotten. It’s a husky voice, full of smoke and fire. At times it’s big and powerful. At other moments it is hypnotic and almost deceptively lazy with hints of a drawl.

Last Friday night Danser officially released her third album, Passin’-A-Time, at the Arden Theatre to an appreciative crowd never shy of displaying their applause. The songs grew out of several trips to the Mississippi Delta where Danser absorbed a vibe from cotton field juke joints, the historical seed for today’s funky blues.

She combined clever, careful arrangements and the only concession to theatricality was from a large screen above the band displaying visuals. For about two hours, she delivered some magical moments simply by standing in the spotlight — no tricks, no gimmickry.

The Edmonton-based blues singer has an outsized personality that commanded attention, yet was at all times elegant, earthy and warmly inclusive. Before and after each tune, she’d tell a personal story or crack a saucy joke.

But it’s Danser’s cunning lyrics, often rooted in her own upbringing, that are a testament to her inventive songwriting skills. For instance Little Allis, written about the Allis-Chalmers tractor on her father’s Saskatchewan farm, is a cleverly orchestrated bawdy song loaded with double meanings. Broad laughs and guffaws rippled through the audience at “I roll the crank/You make your moaning.”

Unlike rock and roll where speed is king, the power of Danser’s music relied on languorous introspection and soulful reflection. In Oh, Mr. Preacher Man the words seemed spoken as much as sung and the title tune Passin’-A-Time was delivered with a slow, heavy sultriness.

Danser’s catalogue is stacked with heavy pieces, no more so than No One (Can Stop the Clock From Tickin’), a song about a man taking the measure of his soul at death. And Glory, Glory Hallelujah, salutes the simple, hardworking people that daily face poverty and segregation. “This is to my friends in Mississippi as I recognize the mountains they still have to climb.”

A deft multi-instrumentalist, Danser handily switched instruments with each song, playing a banjo and three guitars including a vintage Gibson, a resophonic guitar and a Weissenborn Hawaiian guitar used as lap steel.

Throughout the evening she was backed by producer Don Benedictson (bass), John Ellis MacArthur (electric guitar), and brother-sister team Christian (drums) and Sarah Dugas (percussion/backup vocals) of The Duhks.

There was almost a casual, restrained flavour to Danser’s songs. It was only until she sang the last two numbers — Birds ‘n Bees and Mavis Staples’ gospel sounding Turn Me Around that this incredibly energetic, sexy and full-bodied voice let loose filling every corner of the hall and tapping into a new fount of emotions. People were clapping and two women stood up to boogie. It’s a shame Danser didn’t deliver more of this earlier. Perhaps next time.