By Katie Ryan
Bri-Anne Swan is coming back for more. After a sold-out show at local music hub The Singing Waitress Cafe in March, the Toronto folk-singer is set to return for a second concert on Saturday.
“It was such an amazing crowd,” said Swan of her last Border City concert.
“It was a really diverse crowd, pretty evenly split between high school, university age and then ladies from the local United Church.”
For her third Western Canada tour and second stop in Lloydminster, Swan said she hopes to see both new and familiar faces at her gig.
“I keep telling everybody who asks about the tour that they have to go to Lloydminster. It’s the best city in the country,” said Swan who plans to celebrate her bi-provincial concert in style. “I have a special dress for the Lloydminster show, I have this amazing Elvis dress. In The Singing Waitress I didn’t realize it until I got there last time that it’s all decked out in Elvis memorabilia.”
Since her March tour, Swan has been busy writing and performing. She hit the road for the MS Society of Canada, embarking on a month long fundraiser. Along with partner Jason Meyers, Swan performed a series of concerts along the Bruce Trail in Ontario while Meyers walked all 900 kilometres end to end – and at the very end they raised almost $11,000 for MS research.
Swan has also been paying homage to famous singer/songwriters on their birthday, a series she has been performing in Toronto and plans to continue this month on the road.
“Most of the major Canadian singer/songwriters that you think of like Gordon Lightfoot, Neil Young and Joni Mitchell are all born in November which is when I am on the road so a lot of the shows are going to be very Canadian singer/songwriter focussed and, of course, I will sing my own original material,” said Swan, whose final track, “You in Mind,” from her first album these are all my friends was recently featured in the Stonehenge Media documentary Cancers Below the Belt.
Performing in smaller communities like Dundurn and Outlook, SK is important said Swan, who is staying true to her rural roots.
“First of all, I just like them better. They are quieter and being directionally challenged, there’s less chance of me getting lost on the way to the gig,” said Swan, who grew up in a small farming community near Orilla, Ontario. “But also from a practical stand point, it’s an easier market to break through when you don’t have to compete against Lady Gaga or Elton John or some of these huge names that come through Toronto, Calgary or Vancouver.
“It’s just nice and I end up staying at people’s homes a lot of the time, they invite me to stay. It’s a much more personal experience.”
While Swan will tour throughout Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia this month, with plans to record a new album as well this year if  “little funding grant gnomes shine their graces upon me,” Swan plans to explore Canada’s collection of “giant things” on her next tour in 2011.
“Next year I am going to be going across the country playing, it’s called  ‘the really, really ridiculously big tour’ and we are stopping at every community that has giant things,” she said.
“Boissevain, Manitoba has a giant turtle and there’s a place in Alberta that has the world’s biggest perogy (Glendon) and Lloydminster has these huge stakes on the main street downtown. I’ve already started to go to Lloydminster, but these are all smaller communities and I’m using that to keep coming back to these small towns because I just love them so much.”
Check out Swan’s songs at The Singing Waitress Cafe, 4910B - 49 Street, on Saturday. Admission is $10 and show time is 8 p.m.