WHAT do Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young and kd lang have in common?
The answer is they are all Canadian, which is what inspired singer Keith James to create his latest show, which comes to the Kenton Theater in Henley on Thursday night.
The 68-year-old has been a fan of all four musicians but only recently realized their connection via nationality, which he says gives them an added quality that appeals to him and their many other fans.
He says: “Essentially, I’ve spent all my adult life as a singer-
songwriter and musician and all the purveyors of acoustic music that I’ve listened to have turned out to be Canadian.
“There’s just some incredibly beautiful consistency of humanity in the writing.
“I can’t really put my finger on what it is but there’s something that’s never very lairy about Canadian singer-songwriters. There’s nothing ‘show-off’ about them and there’s a certain distinct modesty.”
Keith is returning to the town where he once lived to perform a selection of the stars’ songs in a show called The Great Canadian Song Book. The set list will feature several numbers by Cohen, the singer-songwriter and poet who died in 2016, aged 86, including Everybody Knows, Dance Me to the End of Love, So Long Marianne and, of course, Hallelujah.
Others numbers will include Big Yellow Taxi by Mitchell, who is now 79, Heart of Gold by 77-year-old Young and Constant Craving by Lang, who is a comparative youngster at 61.
So Keith wants to perform one of his own compositions, Human Kindness.
He can’t help pointing out the similarity to Lang’s 2002 album, Hymns of the 49th Parallel, in which she covered the tunes of some of her compatriots, including Cohen and Young.
The album title refers to the circle of latitude around the Earth, 49 degrees north of the equator, which also delineates the border between Canada and America.
Keith, too, lives on a border — the one between England and Wales. He explains: “I live in Presteigne, which is right on the border of Powys and Herefordshire. If I go over to one corner of my kitchen I’m in Powys and if I go over to put something in the bin in the other corner I’m in Herefordshire.”
Keith lived in Henley for about a decade from the mid-nineties when he was a record producer rather than a performer.
He had a studio called The Dream of Oswald at Warren Row.
“It’s a very convoluted, odd name,” says Keith. “It was after a cartoon portrait of my father during the war.”
He produced songs with artists including Chris Rea and Acker Bilk.
“Many artists locally as well as from all over the UK recorded there and it was very busy,” recalls Keith. “I recorded 99 albums for other people. There’s a double bass player of some considerable renown in Henley called Andy Crowdy. He recorded many things there.
“It was during the good old days of analogue tape so when digital recording came in at the beginning of this century, it all kind of fell away.
“I have a recording setup now that you can get in a small bedroom. Sadly, all the recordings sound better on a limited amount of equipment that’s produced to a far higher standard and recorded on to a computer.”
Keith has performed at the Kenton Theater twice before, once with a show called The Songs of Leonard Cohen.
He says: “My greatest love of all in terms of writing is Leonard Cohen. It’s the honesty and gravitas in his writing mixed with quite a sumptuous amount of humour.
“He had a little smile at the world all the time.
“Another huge love in my life has been Joni Mitchell. If you asked me to sum up in one word the artistic and creative vibe that I get from Canadian writers, it would be honesty.
“There’s nothing brash about it, it’s a kind of unique modesty.”
• Keith James — The Great Canadian Song Book is at the Kenton Theater on Thursday (February 2) at 7.30pm. The show has a running time of two hours and 20 minutes, including a 20-minute interval. Tickets cost £22. Call the box office on (01491) 525050 or visit www.kentontheatre.co.uk