Andrea House, Brad Wiebe, Pamela Gordon in Musicians Gone Wild: Rock The Canyon, Mayfield Theatre. Photo by Mat Simpson.

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca

When the poet Joni Mitchell referred in song to “pouring music down the canyon,” the image attaches its mythical reverb to a real locale in a real city — and a real, remarkably expansive five-year period in the history of popular music.

It’s Laurel Canyon in the Hollywood Hills, in an epochal five-year span in the late 60s early ‘70s. Capturing in its music and intricate iconic sound that place, that time, and the mysterious visceral attraction of music (and musicians to each other) is the raison d’être of Musicians Gone Wild: Rock The Canyon. The season-opener at the Mayfield, a theatre with a particular strength in first-rate bands and stylish musical captures, launches a proposed to-be-continued series celebrating seminal eras in pop culture history.

Rock the Canyon traces a tangled genealogy of hit songs, bands, generations of artists back to an idyllic sort of “hippie haven” (as the narration has it), in a magical ‘day for a daydream’. Musicians who’d been poor in the Village in New York (and left unlikely places in Canada) began California dreamin’. And by dint of a mysterious magnetism, they found themselves in Laurel Canyon, where the leaves weren’t brown, the sun shone and the rent was do-able. Where they smoked each other’s weed, ate out of each other’s fridges, slept with each other, and inspired each other to make music.

Designer Narda McCarroll creates a bi-level ‘sweet dream’ of aquas, pinks, paper lanterns, plants with green leaves. Ah, and the proverbial couch from which a generation of folkies arose, reinvented themselves as folk-rock stars — and formed and re-formed themselves as couples and in bands. It’s a fantasy theatre world bathed in Jillian White’s rosy lighting.

There have, of course, been books and documentaries before now about Laurel Canyon in that halcyon period. Rock The Canyon co-creators Tracey Power and Van Wilmott have assembled a terrific cast of 10 musician-performers and set about capturing it in music. The Eve in this Eden seems to be a Mama Cass figure (Andrea House), assisted by a Michelle Phillips figure (Pamela Gordon). They, along with Brad Wiebe, riff narratively on the poetic attractions of a place where you can ‘go where you wanna go, do what you wanna do’, and a sound quintessentially related to a certain guitar, the Rickenbacker 12-string.   

The show opens with California Dreamin’ and Mr. Tambourine Man, borrowed from Bob Dylan and turned into a pop hit by The Byrds. And the more-than-ample song list is a whole musical landscape of memorable mood-enhancing memory-triggering songs you know, beautifully delivered — even if you (like me) don’t know the exact chronology of Crosby, Stills, Nash and sometimes Young. Who was sleeping with whom is even more complicated; let’s just say Laurel Canyon didn’t need a Welcome Wagon. The show has an easy, pleasant way of alighting on the songs created from shacking up, then splitting up.

In Laurel Canyon, and the Troubadour (the L.A. club where everyone showed up and performed) the show has a blue-chip entry card into a remarkable collection of hit songs from The Mamas and Papas, The Byrds, The Lovin’ Spoonful, Buffalo Springfield, The Doors, the Turtles, then Joni Mitchell, Crosby Stills and Nash, Neil Young, James Taylor, Carly Simon. Even the Beach Boys; a visitation by Brian Wilson occasions Good Vibrations, in all its orchestral and choral complications, beautifully delivered by the cast.

The Monkees, manufactured for a TV show, were in the ‘hood. So was Carole King. The fascinating eccentric Frank Zappa moved in, too. The Eagles and Jackson Browne were there. Brad Wiebe does a lovely version of Desperado.

Mark Sterling and Harley Symington, Rock The Canyon, Mayfield Theatre. Photo by Mat Simpson.

‘60s activism is invoked, though in curiously elliptical ways, by the Laurel Canyon crowd. Joni Mitchell didn’t actually go to Woodstock, though her song about it is a memorable generational anthem. Stephen Stills’ For What It’s Worth, inspired by the Sunset Strip so-called “riots,” has a certain observational detachment: “something’s happening here; what it is ain’t exactly clear.” Mark Sterling’s rendition of the Neil Young angry Kent State ode Ohio, in a guitar duet with Harley Symington, is memorable too.    

Power’s production wisely isn’t about impersonating the name players. But the forces under Wilmott’s musical direction are unerring, as you’ll hear, in nailing a range of styles, most involving complex harmonies. Andrea House, a singer of amazing versatility, has a wonderful way with the supple colours and strange lyricism of Joni Mitchell, including Carey from the Blue album. Pamela Gordon’s version of the Carly Simon song You’re So Vain, is a killer; ditto her version of Linda Ronstadt’s great cover You’re No Good.

Lisa MacDougall in Rock The Canyon, Mayfield Theatre. Photo by Mat Simpson.

It’s a multi-talented cast, who move seamlessly through the song list. John Banister, who brings his native Brit cadences to Graham Nash songs (including Our House), sings and plays a whole variety of instruments, including keyboards, trumpet and violin. Harley Symingston plays a whole variety of guitars, including the fateful “Ricky 12”. Perhaps the most unusual voice in the cast, a smoky earthy mezzo, belongs to Lisa MacDougall, a pianist of rare skill. And the sound is impeccable, by now a Mayfield signature.

Come to that, Happy Together might be one of the cultural anthems of the production. Narrative interpolations like “we felt we were on top of the world” or Joni’s “I thrive on change” or “for me, Laurel Canyon was like the elixir of life” pale in comparison to the song lyrics. It’s hard to know how to fashion a finale from such a rich pageant of songs. But commentary about the effect of music on the human psyche might not, in the end, be the way to go. Still, the narrative bits and assorted choreographic accompaniments do stick the songs together, and fashion a chronological genealogy of sorts.

Laurel Canyon, the narration tells us, “gave us community and freedom…. But it was always about the music.” And so is this music-rich highly enjoyable evening.

REVIEW

Musicians Gone Wild: Rock The Canyon

Theatre: Mayfield Dinner Theatre

Created by: Tracey Power and Van Wilmott

Directed by: Tracey Power

Starring: John Banister, Andrea House, Pamela Gordon, Steve Hoy, Paul Lamoureux, Lisa MacDougall, Mark Sterling, Derek Stremel, Harley Symington, Brad Wiebe

Running: through Nov. 5

Tickets: mayfieldtheatre.ca