The stage, beautiful light in The Studio space at Centre in the Square hosted several stringed instruments, two back up vocalists and a piano. The set is minimal but spectacular in its presence with just these performers on stage. Entering the stage soon after is Michael Gabriel, the creator of Strings Attached. The room was prepared for experiencing what newness this musician was going to bring us by an onslaught of press coverage prior to the show. No one had heard him or his clever compositions before in this setting and the thrum of the room was surround the hype and mystique.
On stage, Gabriel approaches the microphone, and starts the show. There is exquisite sound, beautiful and captivating. From the moment the show started to the intermisison, the audience was riveted and pulled into the music. Comments from around ranged from “it’s like [the music] is telling a story, and I need to listen to every bit of it” to “each song feels like a dream… and I don’t want to wake.”
Putting it in the most simple terms: take something like what James Taylor would produce, combine it with the spunk of early Elton John, and set it to small orchestral scoring. Gabriel has a well groomed tenor voice that he controls and contains so that it weaves into, never dominating, the taciting of the orchestra around him. Nor is he ever lost in the sound, but instead keeps in perfect control, ensuring that despite meaningful and beautiful lyric, and gorgeous timber, that everything is integrated in beautiful harmony, tipping hats at each other’s melodies.
In this writer’s estimation, Michael Gabriel, and his concept of Strings Attached will not stay in small soft-seaters, but should ultimately end up in large concert halls. Pay attention, Waterloo Region, to the birth of an angel.
Michael Gabriel, Strings Attached
What a beautiful article to an absolutely beautiful show!!