Wendy McNeill

Birds, lots of songs about birds. But also, fire, forest fires, like the one that impacted Wendy McNeil’s life and home in Valencia, Spain. Certainly, a timely topic and a metaphor for a whole lot more. 

Originally from Edmonton, Wendy McNeill is a songwriter who accompanies herself on the accordion, among other things. Musically, she draws from cabaret, Laurie Anderson, intelligent pop and more. She has described her music as ‘folk noir’ but there is a lot more than that lurking in her work. Intellectually, it’s Oscar Wilde and who knows what else, enough to make it interesting, very interesting. 

She has been doing it for a while, with eight albums and a bunch of film, dance and theatre work as well. She has toured widely and spent a lot of time in Europe. Her performances there have ranged from a series of concerts to help launch a new series for Weltmeister Accordions called ‘Weltmeister Wednesdays’ to a show in honour of International Roma Day, April 8. It all shows in the splendid originality of what she has come up with. There are a lot of songwriters out there, but few of them have the ability, vision and voice of Wendy McNeill. 

– GC