CD REVIEW: Fiddler April Verch mixes blues with red-hot reels

By Diana Nollen

April Verch blends country and Celtic with artistry flying off her fiddling bow and reedy, lilting vocals.

She's a Canadian champion fiddler, step-dancer and singer. Her latest CD, “Steal the Blue,” is a lovely collection of mournful vocal ballads and lively Celtic reels, occasionally touching down in bluegrass territory.

So maybe she's stealing the “blue” out of both bluegrass and a melancholy mood.

The disc starts with a sweet ode to enjoying life's little moments before they slip away, then slides smoothly into “Some People” and the various paths they take when facing life's and lows. It's a haunting heartbreak song, a theme that's repeated in “I Might Have One Too,” “You Hurt Me All Over Again” and “The Lonely Road Back Home.” Her violin even cries on the all-instrumental “Independence, Va” that she wrote.

Balancing the blue moods are lively reels is the rousing “My Friend Craig,” where Verch fires up her fiddle and flies over the steady, hollow beat of the bodhran.

Verch and her band show their country leanings on “The Last Greyhound.” Guitars twang through this all-too-familiar tale of a young girl leaving her home, spreading her wings in search of whatever was missing, only to discover it was there all along.

The lyrics throughout this disc strike a universal chord. Even though they deal with love and loss, Verch's beautiful, clear voice keeps you waiting anxiously for the next tale.

“Steal the Blue” ends with a gospel flair from “He's Holding Onto Me” and its especially poignant line, “I'm not holding onto Jesus, he's holding onto me.” Plucky banjo and mandolin help spirit it along a bluegrass trail before the band breaks out the spoons for a pair of reels that kick the mood from blue to red-hot.

Catch your breath, then catch the band in action Wednesday night (4/14/10) at CSPS in Cedar Rapids.

FAST TAKEInformation: www.legionarts.org/music/Verch.htm or www.myspace.com/aprilverch

Title: “Steal the Blue”

Artist: April Verch

Label: Slab Town Records

Performance: 8 p.m. Wednesday, April 14, 2010, at CSPS, 1103 Third St. SE, Cedar Rapids

Tickets: $14 in advance at www.midwestix.com or $18 at the door