Some songs deal with significant concepts and dramatic events; they aim to tell big stories, pass on important information, and try to stir the soul and give you cause to rethink your world views. And then, some songs have simpler purposes. “East Van Crossing” is definitely in the latter category.
Norine Braun’s tribute to the East Vancouver community that she has called home for the last thirty years is a wonderful blend of folk and rock. But, more than that, it is a masterclass in scene setting and spinning a vivid narrative, and as such it feels like the sort of song that Joni Mitchell or Carole King would have been proud to have written. And thanks to the emotiveness of their storytelling, here, you can feel the warmth coming up from the pavement, smell the exotic aroma of food in the air, and hear creativity being shared in all its forms; the sense of community is palpable.
But, while the song is nostalgic in its love for a place that has long been the artists’ home, nostalgic in the sense that it evokes warm memories of the many years she has lived there, it is also resolutly of the here-and-now, modern folk-rock, powered by the past, perhaps, (but then again, what isn’t) but looking to the future as its direction of travel.
It’s a beautifully textured song, one that is full of delicate musical motifs, the gentle lilt of piano, small, shooting stars of guitar, a ticking back beat for energy, and even when it kicks up a gear, it is as much space and atmosphere that fill the musical canvas, space that frames everything, space that allows the song to breathe and space that let’s the light in.
Not a blast from the past, but if the modern equivalent of the Laurel Canyon scene were happening right now, Norine Braun would be its leading light.
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