I recently heard Opening Night on someone’s random Spotify playlist, and as I cosily took it in, I quickly added it to my own project. And just now as I perused Ocie’s upcoming concerts, they will be performing in Australian small scene venues which I used to frequent watching ‘the Cake‘ and other modest local Melbourne acts.
You see, Ocie Eliot isn’t a ‘she’. They are a Canadian indie folk duo of Jon Middleton and Sierra Lundy from Victoria, B.C., Canada.
Opening Night is such a soothing and calming song and it contains slow melodic moments which I found so stirring and impacting. Also some of the content reminded me of a poem I wrote decades ago called Mornington in reference to a coastal town on the South-east of Melbourne. I wrote: Forget the seedy districts – I mean the beatnik cafeteria, remember? As it happens, the duo met in a chance encounter in a café which led to their collaboration, and their ultimate partnership.
Sierra and Jon have cultivated a fast-growing following by releasing a captivating series of live acoustic videos on Facebook recorded in the cozy confines of the couple’s Honda CR-V (which, Sierra explains, offers “organically well-rounded and self-contained” acoustics that lend an intimacy to their intricate harmonies).
– Ocie Elliot – The Ark
As referred to above, there is probably no a better example of that synchronicity and harmony than their singing in their car here. As the Ark article adds: The novel approach has paid off, with a million streams of their most popular tracks on Spotify and Apple Music, as well as sold-out shows.
It’s really lovely and I can see how they made great inroads, even having their song Run To You featured on an episode of Grey’s Anatomy.
Ocie Elliot cited Gillian Welch, John Prine, Bob Dylan, and Simon & Garfunkel as their biggest influences.
Bye in the morning
Bye at night
Bye in the evening, bye′s on my mind
Flying in airplanes
Drinking in bars
Sleeping in bedrooms that are never ours
Let the strings go, fall through the sky
Come down quick like blinds in the night
You’re feeling angry
You want to fight
You want to restore love to its former height
Dream of the future
Think of the past
Wondering how it′s all going to last
Then some opening bars start to sound
Forget our bodies and move all around
When we come back down from the highs
Say our hellos, stall our goodbyes
References:
1. Ocie Elliot – The Ark
2. Ocie Elliot – Wikipedia
“The more I live, the more I learn. The more I learn, the more I realize, the less I know.”- Michel Legrand
Observation Blogger 
nice
Wow, what a wonderful chance encounter to have heard this song as you did, Matt. It’s gorgeous; thanks for sharing it. The atmospherics of the keyboard and the rest of the instrumentation blend beautifully with the sweet vocal harmonies. There’s a real magic in the sound created with Sierra’s voice overlaid on Jon’s; their tones work so well together, it’s well, magic.
Your quote in the back-linked post “the Cake” contains a sentiment that truly resonates with me, in the sometimes utter absence of visible support for beautiful music. (As an aside, on the YouTube post of the song I shared today, mine was the very first like… on a song from 2013! Seems none of the 206 previous listeners were moved to cursor over to the thumb’s up.)
I also enjoyed your poem “Mornington,” and can see how “Opening Night” brought it to your mind. I look forward to seeing other writings of yours. I’ve shared a handful of poems that I thought complemented song posts, but it’s been a while since I did that. Fabulous post!
Howdy Steve!
I’m thrilled you liked both Ocie Elliott’s Opening Night and Cake’s Lighthouse Keeper, and that the quote in the latter aticle resonated with you. David Bridie (Cake’s songwriter) would surely be chuffed—and probably a little relieved—to read that, as I am too.
I’m grateful you took the time to read my poem and noticed its connection with the song. I sometimes forget to click the “thumbs up.” Come to think of it, I rarely do. I wrote poems in my early adolescence, but age hasn’t treated them kindly—and that’s putting it nicely, hehe. I did write some short prose in early adulthood and published a bit of it here.
That’s cool that you wrote poems to complement your song articles. I hope I get to read some of that one day, if you ever take it up again.
Thanks again so much for your encouraging words.
Howdy, Matt! My pleasure.
David’s and your sentiment is one we don’t hear enough of, in my humble opinion.
I know what you mean about adolescent poems, oh my…. And sorry, I meant I had used poems from a few years back, when I thought they fit a post I was working on (or maybe the lyrics brought them to mind, can’t recall exactly!). It may come up again and perhaps even in the order you refer to.
I will be interested to find some of that short prose you mention. I’m really into short fiction these days, just about finished ‘Look at the Birdie’ by Kurt Vonnegut.
Cheers!
Thanks for the invitation to send you some of the short prose I was referring to. I call them ‘reflection posts’, but I’ll send a couple below for ‘sh/ts and giggles’ ;-P:
Nice! Thank you, I’ll read these later today.