“I’m worthy of all the goodness and the love that the world’s gonna give to me. I’m’a give it back ten times people, are you ready?”
So sang Allison Russell, from the title track of her 2023 album The Returner, to a sold-out crowd at Centre 64 in Kimberley on Tuesday, Feb. 27.
These lyrics couldn’t be more felicitous. Russell’s remarkable life story, which she so beautifully shares though the medium of song, spans from a childhood in which she experienced incomprehensible abuse, to a music career that this year saw her win her first Grammy Award, after being nominated nine times.
After traversing through a mire of hardship, Russell is taking in the love the world has to give her and is indeed sharing it back tenfold, as anyone in the crowd at Centre 64 on that beautiful snowy Kimberley evening could attest to.
Russell was accompanied by a femme-focused band of four musicians, a part of what she’s referred to as the Rainbow Coalition, a nod to the multicultural anti-racist movement founded in Chicago in 1969 by Fred Hampton, a deputy chairman of the Black Panther Party, who was assassinated at age 21.
Each of the four multi-instrumentalist musicians took to the stage to perform by themselves before they joined Russell as a full band.
First was guitar player Caoimhe Hopkinson, who was then followed by drummer Caoi de Barra. Both artists hail from Ireland and this cross-country tour is the first time they’ve ever been to Canada.
Next was bassist Ganessa James, who was joined by keyboard and synth player Elenna Canlas, a.k.a. Lupa.
Following an intermission after the intimate showcase of the Rainbow Coalition’s individual talents, Allison Russell took to the stage with her band. She first picked up her clarinet and began the concert with the brooding “Hy-Brasil”, written as an homage to Russell’s maternal Scottish-Canadian Grandmother, whom she refers to as “the brightest light of [her] childhood,” and her mother, whom she never met.
She then transitioned into the jaunty “Springtime.” This song’s lyrics, which switch back and forth from English to French, feature the Montreal-born singer bidding farewell to “that tunnel [she] went through.”
Next came the aforementioned “The Returner,” another of Russell’s songs in which she says farewell to elements of her past, while celebrating this life she’s made and her joy in sharing that goodness with the world.
As much as she shares the joys of her life, Russell did not shy away from sharing with the audience her painful past, telling them, “You can’t choose your family; who you’re born to, fostered to, stolen by.
Her father, she explained, was born in 1936 in a Sundown town where he was deeply indoctrinated with racism, hate and violence. He then moved to Montreal and married Russell’s mother, who at the time was old enough to be his daughter.
Russell’s father was a Grenadian student who’d already returned home at the time of her birth and her mother struggled with postpartum depression and schizophrenia. Russell was put into foster care until her mother regained custody of her, following the marriage to the white-supremacist adoptive father who would subject Russell to physical and sexual abuse, until, at 15, she ran away from home.
Before her tender performance of “Persephone”, Russell spoke of about the community of Montreal and her first girlfriend, who helped teach her how to love, and what consensual love is.
She then touched on what she referred to as the “surreal experience” of winning the Grammy in the category of Best American Roots Performance. She talked about her father, the cycles of violence that generational trauma can create and said that “People are not monstrous. Even when they’re doing the most monstrous things, they’re still human.”
She said that she’s been struggling to forgive her adoptive father, but is considering meeting with him when this tour takes her to Ontario.
She then played her Grammy Award-winning song “Eve Was Black.” The last song of her set was the joyful “Demons,” which includes a reference to an Outkast song, adding she was dismayed to discover her 10-year-old daughter was unfamiliar with the legendary ’90s hip-hop outfit.
The band began their encore with the song Russell said helped to change her life: “Nightflyer,” before the emotional conclusion to the evening, her song “You’re Not Alone,” which features her “chosen sister” Brandi Carlile, to whom Russell credits for helping elevate and inspire her to where she is today.
Peter Kearns, chair of the Centre 64 Organizing Committee said they felt fortunate to have hosted Allison Russell, and heard from many attendees “how lucky we were to have her.”
“However, it was not luck,” he said. “The volunteer committee worked hard to get her to come here. This show was a was a year in the making. There were lots of negotiations, contracts and sound requirements that had to be worked out. The volunteers loaded and unloaded all the gear. Ray did a magical job on the sound with their sound tech. Our corporate sponsors Overtime and the Pedal and Tap group stepped up to make sure we got the show. A big thanks to them.
“Live @Studio64 agreed to show faith in Allison Russell way before her Grammy awards and well deserved accolades. As last night showed, award nominations and Grammy awards don’t even begin to showcase the emotional energy and context she brings to her music and live show.
“It was a magical night for all.”
And it truly was. While Russell’s own past struggles are her own, she embodies a persona of radiating compassion and love, and as she sings “You’re not alone”, regardless of what struggles you’ve experienced or are experiencing in your own life, she makes you feel seen.