Living Arts Centre Presents: Buffy Sainte-Marie

The Buffy You Know & Love, Geared For Contemporary Audiences
November 16, 2017 at 8:00PM Tickets $35 and up | Hammerson Hall

MISSISSAUGA, ON: Buffy Sainte–Marie’s bold new album, “Power in the Blood”, begins where it all started more than 50 years ago, with a contemporary version of “It’s My Way,” the title track of her 1964 debut. Its message, about the road to self– identity and the conviction to be oneself, still resonates with the Cree singer–songwriter, activist, educator, visual artist, and winner of countless awards (Oscar, JUNO, and Golden Globe, among them). “Power in the Blood” is a follow–up to 2008’s acclaimed “Running for the Drum” and only her fourth studio release in more than 20 years.

Her latest record is an honest reflection of Sainte–Marie. The hallmarks of her catalog – the eclecticism and compassion she brings to each album, oblivious to genre boundaries and production trends – are in glorious bloom here. It’s the Buffy you know and love, and it’s geared for contemporary audiences.

“Power in the Blood” is a reminder that, five decades on, it is still futile to silence artists or to put Sainte–Marie in any single category. She simply doesn’t fit. Yes, she can inspire you to rise up and take action, but she can just as easily melt your heart with a tender ballad. Go back to “Until It’s Time for You to Go” and you’ll be hard-pressed to say when it was written or for whom. It’s evergreen and, like so much of Sainte–Marie’s work, it’s universal.

Every song and every era has revealed new and distinctive shades of an artist revered for her pioneering and chameleon ways. There was no mold from which Buffy Sainte–Marie emerged; she created her own, ripened from experiences in both her head and her heart.