AMS Events presents:

Basia Bulat (Secret City/Rough Trade) w/ Katie Stelmanis

"I don't think I realised the radio had more than one station til I was 11 or 12," Basia Bulat says. At the family home in Toronto, the dial was always fixed to the local oldies station: Motown, Stax, The Beatles, Beach Boys and Sam Cooke. While her mother hunted for someone to do the dishes, Basia and her younger brother Bobby would hide with a radio or tape player, happily rattled by all that song.

Since the age of three, Basia has been sitting on piano stools and trying to hammer things out. It started with her piano-teacher mum, but along the way Basia's picked up guitar, autoharp, banjo, ukelele, sax and flute. In high-school her instrument was the upright bass - a lone girl among "eight-foot-tall guys, goofing off with the tubas". There's a sense of play that still suffuses her music, jostling under the songs of regret and love, want and joy. When her brother began in his teens to play drums with punk bands, Basia would be there with her demerara voice, joining happily in the jam. When she left for university in London, Ontario, musicians began to drop by her downtown apartment. Many nights were spent with these classically-trained friends, laughing and singing, and together they made a glad, bright noise.

Basia's 2007 debut, Oh, My Darling, was a success both at home and on the international scene. It garnered a Polaris Prize nomination, and praise from outlets like NPR, who labeled In the Night as one of 2008s great singles, citing Bulat's graceful effervescence and innate understanding of momentum. Breathless, thirsty, and dislodged from dreary nostalgia, Oh My Darling was the spark that set Basia Bulat apart from the raft of typical singer-songwriters.

Catch Basia Bulat live at St James Hall (3214 W. 10th Ave) on Friday March 5th, 2010.

Tickets: Ticketweb Zulu Records, Red Cat Records (Sold Out) and the Outpost (UBC).