Opening Night (2025) – Ocie Elliott

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