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Glass Onion Folk Club

With John Gardiner

Glass Onion Review: David Essig wows an appreciative audience in Wallaceburg

Tuesday, July 22, 2003

An intriguing look at David Essig through the camera lense of photographer Cairenn L.A. Russelo. David makes a joyful noise. Hard at work.

For lovers of roots blues filled with soulful lyrics and and outstanding guitar work, there was no better place to be last week than at the latest edition of the Glass Onion Folk Club in Wallaceburg to see and hear folk legend David Essig performing at a house concert. The event was sponsored by the Wallaceburg and District Council for the Arts and hosted by John Gardiner and Carol McPhail.
Essig, who has had a lengthy career as one of this country's premier singer/songwriters, was in Ontario for a tour and played the Glass Onion for the second time. He came out for the concert in t-shirt, jeans and was shoeless, looking the part of the roots musician perfectly and quickly pulling the audience into the show.
He started the evening off mainly with a series of traditional blues numbers, relating interesting anecdotes about the artists who had originally performed them. Essig's mastery of slide guitar was never more in evidence than during this portion of the show when he dazzled an appreciative collection of fans with some truly outstanding playing. He joked with the audience that you pull them in with the guitar and hope they stay for the words.
And while performing classics like Mississippi John Hurt's Candyman and Robert Johnson's Comeon In My Kitchen and If I Had Possession, he mixed in his own tunes like Rebel Flag and Tremble and Weep. The second set contained an excellent selection of his originals including The Way Hate Walks and Declaration Day.
Essig delivers a tremendous punch in his music – his tunes are cleverly written gems that require thinking as well as listening and do not resemble in any way the considerable amount of ear candy that dominates popular radio airwaves these days.
Really, there isn't a better example of homespun musical magic that watching this consumate professional take to the stage – even when the stage is a kitchen chair in someone's dining room. He has the rare ability to pull the audience into his show with a wonderful combination of storytelling, both between songs and with his mournful lyrics, and tremendous musicianship carried out in a flawless relationship between him and his guitar.
"We were extremely lucky to have had a performer of David's calibre for a house concert," said organizer John Gardiner. "We've had some really awesome talent over the last couple of years, but getting David was a real treat."
Indeed, the Glass Onion has featured the likes of Michael Pickett, Michael Jerome Brown, Harry Manx, Doc MacLean, Matt Minglewood and Suzie Vinnick over the last two years. "We really work hard trying to bring in the best at what they do," Gardiner said. "I've been thrilled by how excellent all of them have been."
Gardiner promised that he'll be putting together a couple of shows for this fall and urged blues and folk fans to stay posted to www.cktimes.ca for details.



John Gardiner is a 25-year-veteran of the community newspaper business, but he is also a prolific writer of moralistic short fiction he refers to as "emotional thoughtscapes" or "adult fables". Samples of his fiction can be found at:

He has also produced a noteworthy piece of humanist philosophy which can be found at: http://www.xs4all.nl/~aboiten/ad502.htm He welcomes comments on his work.