I purposely went to Hugh’s Room to see Maria Doyle Kennedy. Many will say who? Well, I am a big fan of the movie the Commitments and she played backup singer Natalie Murphy. I brought my Commitments CD for her to sign.

As I found out later, she also played Siobhan Sadler in the Sci-Fi drama Orphan Black from 2013-2017. It was filmed here in Toronto. I now know what I will be watching in the near future. A few of her co-stars were in the audience this day. So, if you are a big fan of the show, you know you need to show up when Maria comes back to town.

Most likely, she will play Hugh’s room again. Her very close friend Jane Harbury is a very important person that works here. She promotes all the shows at Hugh’s room. Be sure to sign up for her newsletter so you can see who is playing there in the future. Newsletter – Hugh’s Room Live

The lights went down, and soft Ariel music filled the church’s atmosphere with exquisite travelling music made for the soul. It had a folksy sound that simply drifted through rolling hills. The visual is very peaceful.

Maria was accompanied with her husband Kieran. He stood peacefully and radiated tranquility that kept everyone still. The second song had that great Zeppelin vibe, because it reminded me of their song, “That’s the Way”.

The most pleasant moment came when they were singing “Everyday and Every night”. I have never heard an audience whisper the lyrics before. It was like nobody wanted to disturb the serenity of the room.

There were some fans wanting to know when the next album was coming out. Maria’s response was that her husband can just pick up a guitar and the music just flows out him. It seems Maria need a lot more time than that. Apparently, half the album is done, and she did promise that it will be out before Christmas. She may receive a lump of coal in her stocking this year if she doesn’t hurry up.

Maria’s topics and lyrics really resonated with an audience that is maturing well.  She challenges us to think of how we grieve and what that could mean to us. As we get older going through grief comes more often. Maria came up with a simple solution to this. Honour your people while they are still alive.

They did a cover that night and they hit a homerun with John Prine’s “Angel of Montgomery”. It just seemed to be another perfect song that fit in with all the themes of tonight’s show.

I was completely pulled into their song, “Colour’s Code, clearly a song about racism. At the beginning of the song, she mentions the name Sandra Bland. This is a true story of a woman who did not deserve to die. There is a powerful chapter of this woman’s story in Malcolm Gladwell’s book, “Talking with Strangers”.

What I really enjoyed about this show and this music is the maturity of a hippie’s dream. What I mean by that is when we were young; we had those moments of trying to create a world of peace. As we move through this world, we carry the dream with us in smaller ways, but they are still there. We still care about those ideas and occasionally need a reminder.  Maria seemed to have taken on that work to remind us again.

I loved Maria’s words at the end of the evening. We all came from near and far and braved bad weather just to be in a room together and plugged in for two hours.

What Maria Doyle Kennedy’s music lets us know is that the massage is still their, but it has a much more mature outlook. Like a fine wine that ages perfectly, these stories are what we need to fill our soul today and continue to push out those positive vibes. We may walk out of the show a quieter audience, but we carry something precious with us.

A few gems from the evening: