The July 17 White Rock BIA Concerts at the Pier show at the East Beach Stage will already be a must-see for fans of the ground-breaking melodic rock of legends Freddie Mercury and Queen (and Windsor, Ontario-based headliner Simply Queen is rightly considered a world-class tribute act).
But it will also be a chance to see and hear one of White Rock’s own rising music stars: Alison Lumley, reunited with close friend and fellow singer-songwriter Chrissie Natoli for the opening act – a revival of their duo Avenue Elle.
The free performance, in the parking lot adjacent to Grand Chief Bernard Robert Charles Plaza on East Beach, starts at 7 p.m. with the duo, with Simply Queen taking the stage at 8 p.m.
Popular on the Austin, Texas, music scene in the early 2010s for its highly creative mix of lyrical and melodic alternative folk-pop with whimsical, sometimes almost ragtime-y tunes – and the felicitous blend of two attractive voices – Avenue Elle is likely to work some of the same magic on a White Rock crowd.
Accompanied only by their own guitars, Lumley and Natoli will, in their customary fashion, alternate performances of their own originals: Lumley’s Light On, Ocean Meets The Sky, Again and Not Ready To Go, and Natoli’s Brand New Day, Keeping Time, Dear Joshua and Bring Me Back.
“We’ve always done it that way, one by her, one by me – that’s the way we’ve kept the balance of our songs,” said Lumley during a recent interview with Peace Arch News.
Lumley’s poetic, life-and-experience-inspired songs will be better known to locals from her appearances at open-mic evenings, such as the weekly sessions at Pelican Rouge Café. (She’s also been adding her vivacious, tuneful approach to 1920s and 1930s dance band repertoire as a member of this writer’s group, The Boulevardiers).
But others may know her better as clients of her day gig – a thriving acupuncture practice, which she established in 2018 and in which she works in conjunction with South Surrey Chiropractic and Wellness at Semiahmoo Centre and Full Range Physio at Miramar Village in Uptown White Rock.
It was actually training to become acupuncturists that brought Avenue Elle together, Lumley recalled.
“It was like Divine providence – we met the first day of acupuncture school in Austin,” she said.
“We were sitting next to each other and there were people of all different ages in the class, but we were the same age. Other people thought we were sisters – we seemed to have the same energy.”
The instant rapport was only strengthened when they discovered they both wrote songs and played music. But, ironically, they didn’t play music together for a year after their first meeting.
“We’d meet at open mics and she’d be playing her songs and I’d be playing mine. And then one day we looked at each other and said ‘Why don’t we do some songs together?’
“As Chrissie said about it, later, ‘What were we thinking?’”
It was evident immediately that the duo dynamic clicked, Lumley remembered.
“It’s a chemistry thing. It was easy – we laughed a lot. It was really fun. I’d go to her house in Austin, or she’d come to mine, and we’d present our songs to each other. Sometimes we’d think that maybe that one doesn’t work, but, more often than not, we’d find tunes we could do together.”
What took a while was coming up with a name for the duo, Lumley said.
“Chrissie’s surname was Engel, and with mine that gave us the E-L or Elle part. We thought of Elle Street, but Avenue Elle worked better for us.”
Although they admired each other as singers and songwriters, they were aware of being distinctly different personalities, Lumley said.
“My dad always said that Chrissie was the one who was happy in the moment, where I was the ‘seeker.'” she noted.
They’d also been on very different paths growing up, Lumley added.
Natoli, born in Pottstown, Philadelphia, had been raised by her aunt.
“Chrissie grew up very religious," Lumley said.
"Singing hymns was where her love of music started.”
But Lumley was born in Epsom, Surrey, in the U.K., to a Canadian father (a geophysicist working in oil exploration) and a British mother (a health-care professional).
The family lived there until she was five and spent some time in the New Orleans area until moving to Texas when she was eight.
A dancer from an early age, she was offered an opportunity to study ballet in Berlin when she was 18, and lived there for five years until returning to Texas.
Part of a very musical extended family (her parents first connected over mutual fondness for the Beatles and other '60s artists), Lumley had always written poetry and reached a point where she decided she wanted to write music too, naming Jewel and Sarah McLachlan as early influences.
By the time she and Natoli met, the latter’s musical boundaries had been extended by her love for the songs of Cat Stevens and Van Morrison, Lumley said.
But it became evident, after they started working together, that outside of their own originals they had very little common musical territory.
“We didn’t know any of the same things, and she didn’t know any ‘pop’ songs,” Lumley said, noting that when they were challenged to take an existing song and harmonize it, they were limited to Natoli’s favourite hymn, In The Garden, and Tennessee Ernie Ford’s 15 Tons.
“She had never sung harmony before we started singing together. I grew up singing harmony. But she figured it out – and I don’t know how she did it. She always surprises me – and she has a great sense of humour.”
Working in venues around the Austin area was augmented by adventures such as a road trip to Colorado to play live on a radio station there; and having the honour of being selected as contestants for a musical competition for Garrison Keillor’s famed Minnesota Public Radio show Prairie Home Companion.
“We didn’t win, but we were treated royally,” Lumley said.
“They flew us up to St. Paul’s and we were picked up at the airport in a limousine – the driver was carrying a sign reading ‘Avenue Elle.' We felt really important!”
But possibly the best playing experience was the least likely one, she said – when they were booked to perform in the tiny town of Centennial, Wyoming (population 200).
While that conjures images of tumbleweeds blowing across a deserted main street (not far from the truth, Lumley laughed) it turned out to be one of the best and most appreciative crowds they played to.
“Since we were the only act there there that week, almost everybody in town was there at the pub to hear us!” she said.
