-
If Ben Sures was a beverage
[+ Show ]
Exclaim Magazine!
If Ben Sures was a beverage you can bet he'd have some stiff spirit to sneak up o...Exclaim Magazine!
If Ben Sures was a beverage you can bet he'd have some stiff spirit to sneak up on you (gin perhaps) something aromatic and fortified (vermouth) and a finishing sweetness (sherry?). And like a good martini, Goodbye Pretty Girl deserves to be savoured, not devoured. Sures's depth as a songwriter is, to borrow one of his song titles, clear as a bell. The sing-song lilt he employs on tracks like "Maybe" and "Any Precious Girl" draw the ear like fish to a hook. But not satisfied to merely bait his audience, Sures is a varied writer upping the bar with each track and exploring everything from ramshackle peephole beat blues ("Holes") to epic transcendent anthems to failure ("Falling"). With Goodbye Pretty Girl Sures's name is sure to become as commonplace in the rest of the country as it all ready is in the west.
By Brent Hagerman, Exclaim Magazine!
September 05, 2003
-
New Sounds
[+ Show ]
NEW SOUNDS - May 19, 2003
by VUE STAFF
Ben Sures
Goodbye Pretty Girl
(independent)
Ben Su...NEW SOUNDS - May 19, 2003
by VUE STAFF
Ben Sures
Goodbye Pretty Girl
(independent)
Ben Sures is perhaps the greatest gift Winnipeg has ever bestowed upon
Edmonton. In the past few years, the rootsy singer/songwriter has
raised the bar for his local contemporaries by effortlessly
intertwining lilting melodies with sharp, evocative lyricism that
combines folk, blues and a bit of pop he's an ingratiating,
iconoclastic storyteller. On Goodbye Pretty Girl, the familiar themes of longing hearts and lonely souls are present, yet Sures delivers these 10 songs with a greater sophistication than he's ever revealed before. Under the guiding hand of co-producer Mike Lent, Sures sounds playful and assured, whether he's singing the kind of junkyard blues you wish Tom Waits were still making (Holes) or etching a tangible portrait of introspection (Water). Perhaps the weakest link in Sures's otherwise genius creation is the melodramatic "No One Understands," which falls back on unsurprising singer/songwriter canon fodder, albeit dressed in competent musicianship. Happily, the rest of the album is ridiculously entertaining and inspired and should either launch Sures to a deserved audience beyond our local field, or inspire Winnipeg to reclaim its prodigal son.
FOUR STARS Dave Johnston
-
Fan Mail
[+ Show ]
Sonya
Okay so last night as I was slightly buzzed on red wine, I thought of a lot of really cleve...Sonya
Okay so last night as I was slightly buzzed on red wine, I thought of a lot of really clever things to say about Ben's new CD. Unfortunately I can't remember them now. I think it had something to do with Ben's god-like stature ( he really does bear a striking resemblance to Greek Fertility statues) and the way his rythmic, emotive songs spring from the ether and always manage to evoke thoughts of some personal experience. Yes, he kills me softly with his songs... they make me feel as though I'm being rocked gently in a cradle and having really fabulous sex all at the same time. Makes me want to leave tofu weiners on somebody's night table. Sniffle. I love you, man. Such talent... such genius.. such beautiful teeth. Wow, this seeemed much more intelligent yesterday.
-
3 articles
[+ Show ]
Friday, April 13, 2001
It's a Sures thing
By MIKE ROSS
Edmonton Sun
I enjoy being a smart alec...Friday, April 13, 2001
It's a Sures thing
By MIKE ROSS
Edmonton Sun
I enjoy being a smart aleck. I really do. And I like to think I'm a funny guy - of course, actually saying that you're funny isn't funny at all. Is admitting to not being funny in any way funny?
I have no idea. Tired. So tired. I've been in the Caribbean for two weeks, exposed to no other music but bad pop hits set to soca rhythms, old Bryan Adams songs and a smattering of '70s Santana. Happy to be back, I troll the Edmonton radio stations only to hear the same damn songs I heard two weeks ago. Hello? Can you guys please add something new once in a while? And by the way, is there a new rock band out there that doesn't sound like Counting Crows or Hootie and the Blowfish or Third Eye Blind or Creed or Pearl Jam? It's as bad as non-stop calypso.
While we're on the subject, the Staggered Crossing is at the Sidetrack Cafe tomorrow night. The band is the latest Canadian signing from the Warner Music Canada label. They kind of sound like the Counting Crows. Naturally, the Bear added it right away.
Tickets are $7 in advance, $9 at the door. Opening will be the local band Three Days Wiser, no relation to Three Eyes Blind.
Where was I? Oh, yeah: Funny.
While thinking of something funny to write, I listened to the first track from Ben Sures' new CD, Live: Keep Fresh.
The first line spoke to me: "Sometimes a funny man is not so funny. His jokes just come out sour grapes. He would like to make you smile, but needs your shoulder for a while, 'cause he does not know how to say what he wants to anyway."
Oh, man ... how true.
Sures plays Wednesday at the New City Likwid Lounge. If you give him money, you'll get an advance copy of his upcoming studio album, which will come out whenever enough people give him money, plus a free copy of Live: Keep Fresh to tide you over. The gig is the only place you can get it. The CD and show are also two of the last places to experience Ben Sures the white folksinger-songwriter. He says he's tired of being a white folksinger-songwriter in competition with countless other white folksinger-songwriters and thus constantly being rejected by one folk festival after another. Plus, the white folksinger-songwriter genre has become a bit stale.
"It's gone from new and revolutionary and it's turned into sort of easy-listening music," he says. "It's like a lot of these people have had too much therapy or something. The live album is a way of capping the folk thing. I'm trying new things now. But I wanted to document me as that kind of artist."
Sures says he's in the process of reinventing himself. When the studio record comes out late this year, there might be a few surprised fans. He might even - gasp - go electric. Yes, shades of Bob Dylan.
For those who don't know, Sures is a short Jewish man with a wicked wit and a magical way with a folk song. He says his musical bent has less to do with his religious heritage than the fact both his parents are artists. A musician since the age of 18, Sures moved to Edmonton from Winnipeg about three years ago for some unexplained reason. Their loss is our gain.
He is also tremendously funny in his songs and his famous stage banter, both of which can be heard on Live: Keep Fresh. In case I haven't mentioned it, this is a live recording.
If you're into singalongs and don't have the energy to leave the house, this is a good pick for you. His song Stupid Stupid is a swell example: "Stupid, stupid, pretty dumb humans ... invented the light bulb so we could see the bill for the electricity." And so on.
You'll also get Part 3 of the continuing saga of The Hippo and the Canary. It's a twisted tale involving an alcoholic pop star and the man who loved her before supposedly stomping her flat and going to jail. The canary is the pop star, the hippo is the man.
"She's supposed to be dead with a very flat head, on the tale grows," Sures sings.
There will be a sequel.
It's not as if he can stop now.
Sures opens for himself on Wednesday, solo, and will hopefully be joined by a band later on.
Do yourself a favour and give him money.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Friday, January 14, 2000
He's a Sures thing, with great hair
By FISH GRIWKOWSKY
Express Writer
It needs saying right off the bat. Don't underestimate the seriousness of Ben Sures. He's what mean, tall girls might call a shorter guy, with an excellent mop of hair, the perfect image for his sassier, scrappier songs.
But it doesn't take much scraping to realize he's a seeker of the truth, a man who likes the way Charles Bukowski writes, for example, but not necessary the whorehouse filth he writes about.
A soulful humanitarian singer-songwriter, in short. "In my case it's a curse. You labour over these clever, heartfelt songs, put everything into them. Then you bring out some stupid five-minute song and everyone remembers you for that.
"I shouldn't deny it - it is part of what I do, of course."
Sures, who turned 32 in December, has a few clownish songs on his two indie records, Kill Your Inner Child and In a Perfect World being good examples. The latter song includes twisted fantasy lyrics about hitting your boss, thus roping in the Stone Cold set with ease. But Sures is optimistic.
"They buy the record and get tired of Perfect World first, even though they picked me up for that one. They get to the meat eventually, it seems."
Sures produced last year's Mike McDonald tribute show and he's got a funny Web site at www.yellowpencil.com/ben and seems up to any challenge, even planning to release a free live album on MP3.
Born the child of two visual artists in Regina, both of whom teach out East now, Sures shrugs off the chance to take a swipe at contemporary music as fallen art. "I probably have the same feeling about AM radio that a lot of people do. But that's not even necessarily music. That's business, their business. It's all carefully planned and people obviously listen to it. I'm not opposed to reaching a wider audience myself, though I have to do it realistically.
"You hear singers say, 'We don't want the mainstream attention,' but I would love to have a big car. I wouldn't even mind having a tour bus! But I have to get a deal on a small American label first."
To this end, Sures is taking off again after a couple nights here at the Sidetrack, hosting open mike night Monday, and playing again on Tuesday. Sures is then heading to the International Folk Alliance Conference in the states, as well as Ontario, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Having grown up everywhere from Saskatchewan to a British boys school in Greece, he's used to the road, so shed no tears for our friend Sures.
"It really comes down to being able to play for more people, which you have to look beyond Canada to do.
This is my country and I love it, but you have to think in bigger terms, especially if you're a guy like me."
Hilariously, Sures then turns the interview around on me, asking questions about the solidarity of the Edmonton alt.country scene. But we'll save that conversation for another time.
The show at the 'Track sounds promising, any way, with Jason Summach on the mandolin and Jon Nordstom from Captain Tractor on upright bass. It'll be a night of storytelling from a number of perspectives, few of them to do with height.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday, August 8, 1999
2nd self-helpings may hurt
For Sures, life needs balance - and maybe toy hippos
By SHELLY DECKER
Express Writer
EDMONTON -- If you can't see your way through the forest of self-improvement tapes and books, then Ben Sures will show you the way.
Your life lesson starts with these memorable words:
"If you see my inner child on the highway, kick him once for me. Tell him to self help himself out of my reality.
Tell him that it's high time that he grew up and moved away. Leave me to the comfort of steak and cafe au lait. Kill Your Inner Child.''
Expected to make it on Sures' third album, Kill Your Inner Child is sure to turn heads at the folk fest, where he'll be performing at the New Faces workshop at 11 a.m. today on Stage 1.
Indignant do-gooders wanting to thump him with their therapy books can relax, this is just a spoof.
"People either howl or laugh because they realize it's in jest or they're totally offended,'' said the 31 year old, who moved to Edmonton from Winnipeg in March.
The acoustic roots singer and songwriter was inspired to pen the lyrics after an encounter last year with a homeowner for a house concert gig in Sudbury, Ont.
Clad in a three-piece suit with flawless skin, a huge smile and armed with an amazingly pleasant personality, the man said he owned more than 40 self-help tapes.
"He was eerie. He was void of any individuality,'' Sures said. "My analogy was he helped himself to too much self-help. It's just like eating too much cheesecake; the first piece is great, but eat a second one and you might want to throw up.''
All for improving one's self, we need to remember life needs balance, explains the single man, who lives in a downtown pad with an orange-red kitchen and a bright yellow office, bedroom and living room. This character eats off dishes created by his ceramic artist father, has toy hippos (for two related songs) and let's not forget the new bar of Capt. Nemo soap.
A fan of chalk art, his building's back parking lot is testament to his creative side. Since he drives around with an ample supply of the fat sticks, maybe he'll get some fellow folk performers to scratch out temporary art.
While he's no newcomer to our festival, it is Sures' first performance at the event. And he's looking forward to sharing the workshop stage with Andy White, Martha Wainwright and Bob Wiseman.
"It's exciting,'' he said. "It's the most intimate manner of catching music.''
The workshops are instrumental to the festival, says Holger Petersen, one of the event's founding fathers and former artistic director.
"That's what's, in so many ways, the heart and soul of the festival,'' said Petersen, who added the workshop pressure-free atmosphere sparks an easy banter and plenty of laughs among musicians.
"Artists step out a little further and do new material,'' he said.
"For the audience, you experience another side of the performer and more insight into a performer.''
It's a win-win concept for performers and those who check it out,"
-
..an artistic force to be reckoned with
[+ Show ]
Most easily described as the best of Tom Waits combined with the best of Woodpigeon, Ben Sures is ju...Most easily described as the best of Tom Waits combined with the best of Woodpigeon, Ben Sures is just as musically talented as he is a dynamic songwriter. And he is a wonderfully dynamic songwriter. With a repertoire of songs that range from the vividly romantic “Dancer” to the edgy “Drunk and In My Kitchen” to the oddball “Lettuce and Tomato,” Sures is an artistic force to be reckoned with.
That said, one does sometimes wish Sures were a bit more varied and intense in his vocal emotion. However, the charming lyrics, and the expertly executed and imaginative instrumentals more than make up for this shortcoming. Truly, anyone who was expecting Field Guide to Loneliness to be a droning, depressing album about solitude is in for a shock. It is actually refreshingly upbeat and is, so far, the best folk album of the year.
Bryan Saunders
-
Contemporary Singer Songwriter
[+ Show ]
(Contemporary; Singer-Songwriter)
"Quirky with twists and unusual turns of phrase"--Festival ...(Contemporary; Singer-Songwriter)
"Quirky with twists and unusual turns of phrase"--Festival Distribution Newsletter. On No Absolutes (1994) Winnipeg singer-songwriter Ben Sures has released a debut album sure to catch your attention with its combination of unusual lyrics and excellent musicianship. The album has a solid backup cast, including Ron Casat on accordion, Tim Williams on guitar and mandolin, and supporting vocals by Jane Hawley and Jennifer Gibson. Highlights include "Things a Fella Won't Do," "Tired," "Everything I Do," and "No Absolutes."
Ooh Wah Baby (1997) is a head turner. Put this one in your CD player and people will stop to ask you who's performing. Sures' arresting lyrics combined with his excellent slide guitar playing creates an album that is varied, funny, touching and endearing, in equal parts. Produced by Sures, the album includes a cast of excellent musicians, including the Wyrd Sisters, background vocals; Jesse Hull, fiddle; Todd Kehler, bass; and Richard Moody, viola, mandolin and background vocals.
-
Who killed the last folksinger?
[+ Show ]
Perverse as it seems, I like it when Ben Sures has those crushing epiphanies that threaten to overwh...Perverse as it seems, I like it when Ben Sures has those crushing epiphanies that threaten to overwhelm his life. Sometimes too damn clever for his own good, he can unwind into polished singer-songwriter mode at the drop of a hat – a Western Canadian version of Paul Simon's perennial '70s New York alienation schtick – or often forgettable jaunty little throwaway ditties. Peel off the veneer of crafted folk singer melancholy, however, and you get the barely contained horror of Martin Sheen drunkenly inspecting the mirror in Hanoi. Sures may not be smashing the glass that winks sternly back at him, but he seems pretty close on parts of Field Guide To Loneliness – lamenting the disuse of recently acquired culinary skills on 'Til I Learned To Cook For You, watching with unblinking eyes a man unable to move in Man on the Verge, mixed feelings about his hometown of Winnipeg. That's Sures at his most unguarded, but even when he puts off such mordant thoughts his craftsmanship and musical range is impressive - Used to Have a Raygun utilizes distorted vocals and slapped knees for rhythm, oscillator solo in between verses, while a very Dylanesque sneer creeps through the lacerating Who Killed the Last Folk Singer?
Tom Murray
-
'Sures has delivered a gem!"
[+ Show ]
-“Who killed the last folksinger?” wonders Ben Sures. Well, as long as he’s doing what he does here,...-“Who killed the last folksinger?” wonders Ben Sures. Well, as long as he’s doing what he does here, there’s always going to be one really good one left in the world.
Very rarely, I receive a CD that just blows me away from the opening notes. Field Guide to Loneliness is such a disc. Ben Sures is a wonderful storyteller and a nimble guitar picker. He writes tales that are vivid, personal and concise. Not a wasted word or note here – every song clocks in at under four minutes and lingers in your head much longer.
The first acoustic notes of “Dancer” lured me in – the song has a gentle bounce and tells a sad, touching story. If every song were in this style, the whole album would still be a worthwhile listen. And then comes the cool, quirky “Used To Have a Raygun.” (And just the other night, I was telling my wife and daughter how I used to daydream in elementary school about having one.) It has a nifty guitar hook, spry hand percussion, and clever-as-heck lyrics.
Then there’s the rocking, catchy “My Last Girlfriend” – peppy harmonica from Mike McDonald, Sures’ fuzzed-up raving guitar, and cute ’50-style backing vocals. In the same vein, and just as awesome, is the aforementioned “Who Killed the Last Folksinger?” It has a jam band vibe, Sures’ exuberant vocal, and Corey Ticknor’s percussive, plucky mandolin.
At the other end of the spectrum, yet fine in their own right, are the jazzy, Tom Waits-ish “Bachelors” and “Not On the Town.” “Bachelors” is darkly personal, a glimpse into a sad man’s life. “Town” is even old-timier, with Sures nailing a brilliant solo and a sassy male-female vocal duet that sounds like the script of an old movie.
“Til I Learned to Cook for You” and “Winnipeg” are sweet and sad. Cook nails another smooth guitar solo, and “Winnipeg” features Burke Carroll’s slippery pedal steel. I dig the sense of bittersweet regret in both, and the lyric images in “Winnipeg” are especially vivid.
OK, so what else can Sures do? Well, there’s the bossa bounce of “Under Water,” an environmental tale told from the point of view of a fish – jazzy guitar (including a groovy, too-short bass and guitar interlude) and absolutely charming backing vocals. And the driving “Squeezed Out Of the Sky,” twangy rockabilly that belies the lyrical lament of resigned defeat.
“Lettuce and Tomato” is my current (as of this writing) favorite – a flurry of mandolin punctuating a poignant tale of the uneasy relationship between kids and their parents. Then comes “Man on the Verge,” the heart-on-your-sleeve, confessional closing track, Sahra Featherstone’s violin floating like a sweet kiss goodbye.
I just had to play this album for my wife, and she enjoyed it, too. With Field Guide to Loneliness, Ben Sures has delivered a gem, and I’ll just leave it at that.
Chip Withrow, Muse's Muse
-
Sures walks fine line on Field guide
[+ Show ]
-Sures walks fine line on Field Guide
Musician 'intimate without being awkward'
Peter North , F...
-Sures walks fine line on Field Guide
Musician 'intimate without being awkward'
Peter North , Freelance
Published: Friday, March 14, 2008
Ben Sures is never at a loss for words, whether he's writing a song or talking about the process of songwriting, performing or recording.
In the midst of a cross-country tour, Sures is feeling rather positive about the outcome of his latest recording session, which resulted in Field Guide to Loneliness.
The title alone would make the disc worth investigating even if Edmonton-area folk-roots fans didn't know who Sures was.
That is hardly the case though, as the songwriter/guitarist started building a following some 15 years ago when he moved from his hometown of Winnipeg to Edmonton. (He has spent the last three years in Toronto.)
There's always been lots to recommend and admire about Sures's work and the way he delivers it. If Woody Allen were a singer-songwriter, his work just might resemble that of Sures.
As a writer and performer, Sures feels he has been able to reach a place where he "can walk a fine line of being intimate without being awkward."
Performing for audiences that he sees as a combination of "baby boomers and 20-year-old nerdy girls," Sures will be introducing the characters who inspired some of Field Guide's songs -- including Bachelors, Dancer, Used to Have a Raygun and Man on the Verge.
"The only song I was on the fence about including on the album was Who Killed the Last Folksinger, because it is super derivative," says Sures.
The song carries a solid rhythmic punch and features a rare recorded performance of Jr. Gone Wild frontman Mike McDonald, who added some Neil Young-like harmonica to the track.
"I've wanted to get Mike on a recording for a long time," says Sures.
"We also got Gary Craig (Blackie and the Rodeo Kings/Anne Murray) to play drums and he and Mike (Lent) really provided a comfortable foundation for the songs. Those two really love playing together and you can hear that."
It also doesn't hurt to have blues diva Little Miss Higgins, who is creating a major buzz coast to coast, on the album credits. Higgins provided one of her vintage vocal passages on Not on the Town.
For tonight's concert at Queen Alexandra Hall, Sures will be in the company of mandolinist and fiddle player Cam Neufeld, singer, bassist and longtime road companion Shantel Koenig, drummer Peter Hendrickson, and singers Rhonda Withnell and Stephanie Suchy.
The show will be recorded for future broadcast by CBC Radio 2.
Peter North, The Edmonton Journal 2008
-
There’s a freshness to award-winning songwriter Ben Sures’s new album
[+ Show ]
NOW RATING N N N N N
DISC REVIEW
Ben Sures - Gone To Bolivia
(independent) BY SARAH GREE...
NOW RATING N N N N N
DISC REVIEW
Ben Sures - Gone To Bolivia
(independent) BY SARAH GREENE
There’s a freshness to award-winning songwriter Ben Sures’s new album that belies his 20 years of making records. The Edmonton-based singer/guitarist sounds like he’s discovering new things on these simple, inviting songs about revolutionaries, American shantytowns, cruise ship work and residential school survival.
Producer Don Kerr is sympathetic to Sures’s warm and wordy delivery, embellishing it with playful touches of percussion, strings, pedal steel and piano that never overpower the songs. Backup vocals by Rhonda Stakich, Kathryn Rose, Michelle Rumball and the Good Lovelies add a breathy lightness to the otherwise political material – a good trick.
The album has personal touches, too. High School Steps is as much an ode to early friendships and the Kinks as it is to a high school sweetheart, while Everybody Matters is an unabashed feel-good group hug of an anthem.
Top track: Gone To Bolivia
-
There’s a freshness to award-winning songwriter Ben Sures’s new album
[+ Show ]
NOW RATING N N N N N
DISC REVIEW
Ben Sures - Gone To Bolivia
(independent) BY SARAH GREE...
NOW RATING N N N N N
DISC REVIEW
Ben Sures - Gone To Bolivia
(independent) BY SARAH GREENE
There’s a freshness to award-winning songwriter Ben Sures’s new album that belies his 20 years of making records. The Edmonton-based singer/guitarist sounds like he’s discovering new things on these simple, inviting songs about revolutionaries, American shantytowns, cruise ship work and residential school survival.
Producer Don Kerr is sympathetic to Sures’s warm and wordy delivery, embellishing it with playful touches of percussion, strings, pedal steel and piano that never overpower the songs. Backup vocals by Rhonda Stakich, Kathryn Rose, Michelle Rumball and the Good Lovelies add a breathy lightness to the otherwise political material – a good trick.
The album has personal touches, too. High School Steps is as much an ode to early friendships and the Kinks as it is to a high school sweetheart, while Everybody Matters is an unabashed feel-good group hug of an anthem.
Top track: Gone To Bolivia
-
his best work yet and it is as good a piece of work as any I have heard.
[+ Show ]
Ben Sures
Gone to Bolivia (Independent)
Ben Sures, based in Edmonton, AB, these days, has been, ov...Ben Sures
Gone to Bolivia (Independent)
Ben Sures, based in Edmonton, AB, these days, has been, over the last 20 years or so, forging a sturdy career by writing, playing, touring, and putting out albums—each one better than the last … just as it should be.
In Gone to Bolivia, his eighth, he has put out his best work yet and it is as good a piece of work as any I have heard. From the terrific opening American Shantytown—“If there’s trouble in America then there’s trouble everywhere”—12 originals and one Mose Allison tune follow and not a runt in the litter. The Boy Who Walked Backwards Through the Snow is a heartbreaking retelling of some dark Canadiana. I loved the title track, a catchy political pop song.
Ben also wisely surrounded himself with helpers such as producer Don Ker of the Rheostatics along with Claire Jenkins, the Good Lovelies and Michelle Rumball, the original singer of the Grievous Angels, and some of the Creaking Tree String Quartet, adding to the quality of the adventurous musicianship on the album. Ben has hit one over the fence with this release.
– by les siemieniuk
American Shanty Town
Any Precious Girl
