By Carol Martin
SooToday.com
Friday, April 15, 2005

Local chanteuse Catherine Taddo set the stage on fire at this week's premiere Northern Songwriter's Showcase at Loplops Lounge and Gallery.

The show featured music written by Taddo and performed by other local musical artists, as well as by Taddo herself.

She'll be releasing her first full-length CD June 10.

Musicians joining Taddo on Thursday night also performed some of their own music and a few covers to an enthusiastic audience.

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Loplops proprietor Steve Alexander said he decided to host the event because he wanted to give local musicians an opportunity to showcase their original music and to raise some money to help offset the high cost of reproducing CDs.

"With the kind of things happening in our community now it might be a good thing to do a sort of fund-raiser," said Alexander.

One idea Alexander said he is tossing around for the Northern Songwriter's Showcase is a 'various artists' CD sampling performances he's thinking of calling Live at Loplops.

"It's all about promoting live, original, local music," Alexander said.

He said he also intends to pair local artists with shows he brings in from out of town this summer whenever possible because it benefits both the musicians and Loplops patrons.

Supporting Taddo at this week's showcase premiere:

- Amanda Pierosara
- Chris Belsito
- Jay Case
- Startlefish
- Lindsay Pugh
- Mark Kuntsi

The evening of performances wound up with a boisterous impromptu reunion of the Chris Belsito Band joined by James Case to belt out Belsito tunes old and new.

Taddo plans to return to Loplops to officially release her CD on June 10 and to launch the Canadian Elemental Tour.

For the first two weeks of the tour, Taddo will be joined by local music icon Chris Belsito, southern Ontario group Vile Richard and Caroline Spence, winner of The Great Canadian Talent Search, sponsored by Canadian Musician magazine in 2003.

The official tour launch, featuring Catherine Taddo, Caroline Spence, Chris Belsito and Vile Richard will go down at The Cameron House in Toronto on June 15.

The tour will pass through the Sault and stop at Loplops again on June 23, midway through the three-week Elemental Tour which will wind up with Taddo and Spence in Vancouver on July 3.

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Thanks to Craig West and Chris Belsito for providing some of the photos in this gallery!