The Cultch has your Friday entertainment plans to kick off the long weekend. May 21st , at Noon and 6pm, The Cultch hosts the album launch of This Spring: Songs by Veda Hille, a tribute album of Veda Hille songs by Nicholas Krgovich, livestreamed from the Historic Theatre.
photo: Jennilee Marigomen
Nicholas Krgovich is a local songwriter and multi-instrumentalist described by the legendary musician Robert Wyatt as “quite beautiful, very touching… human” he has been releasing records and playing shows since 2002.
Veda Hille is a classically trained pianist, art school drop-out, performance curator, self-taught singer, theatre interloper, and independent artist who found herself the The Cultch 2020 pandemic artist-in-residence, and kept writing music and finding ways to entertain us virutaly over the year.
With 22 albums under her belt, she has been writing music, making records, and performing internationally since 1992.
The well-known Vancouver musicians first met in the late 90s. He was a teenager coming to her shows, and the first homemade cassette he gave her was a cover of her Emily Carr songs. The next one was of his own songs, recorded in his living room. Nick and Veda became friends, and played on each other’s albums, and got twenty years older. Late in the pandemic year, Nick confessed that he had once again been covering songs in his living room; the album, This Spring, is a radical reimagining of 16 of Veda’s tunes, from her early days to just last year. It comes out on Tin Angel Records and 7ep, and Nick and Veda are celebrating by playing each other’s music at The Cultch, two shows streamed live.
Krgovich says “I had recently played a show in L.A. where we learned her song ‘Plants’ and a lot of people came up to me afterwards being like, ‘What the heck was that Plants song?,’ everyone going to their phones and queueing up ‘Veda Hille’ on their Spotify accounts. So, I was just like, ‘Wait, that’s what I’m gonna do! I’m gonna make a covers album of Veda’s songs!’ And then that was that, I was off to the races and now it’s done and I’m so happy to be able to share it with her and all of you.”
The album launch of This Spring: Songs by Veda Hille livestreams this Friday May 21, 2021 with two shows at Noon and 6pm from The Cultch Historic Theatre. Tickets are $10 and available by phone from The Cultch or online at thecultch.com/event/this-spring-record-release