A few months ago, I noticed that one of the old stand-by's at music festivals was not exciting me like it used to. For years the songwriter's circle has been a staple of award show weekends, often taking place earlier in the day than the actual awards, a sure-fire seat-filler, where the best and brightest appear together on stage, knocking out some of their greatest hits on acoustic guitars. In Nashville, they call this a song-pull, and it's not exclusive to any area, it's just popular around here. That's probably because we have so many talented singer-songwriters. The idea has been adapted to TV and radio shows, taken into bars and theatres, seen hot shots teamed up with rookies, and still it shows no sign of fading. Except, I found I wasn't going to them anymore. Been there, done that, even though I like the performers, I just found that the format was getting tired.

So, along comes Chris Kirby to shake the cobwebs off the songwriter's circle. You know Chris, he's that talented guy from Newfoundland with the acclaimed album Vampire Blues, nominated at last year's ECMA's for Best Songwriter. With his band, he's a R'n'B, funky performer, and when he goes solo acoustic, he's more of a blues player, wicked on both the vocals and the guitar. Chris was at a point in his career where he's moving into the bigger venues at times, and wanted to find a show concept for people to enjoy, more of a value-added performance than the regular bar show. He, too, realized the old songwriter's circle was not going to excite everybody anymore. But what else does a songwriter do?

Well, they also sing each others songs. They hang with other songwriters, learn their stuff, become friends. And that's what Kirby came up with as a new concept. He's assembled a gang of some of the best young songwriters in Atlantic Canada, and they are on the road, in a new show called Who's Song Is It Anyway? In Kirby's plan, it's a songwriter's circle turned inside out. Each performer will learn songs by the other artists.

The team includes one performer from each Atlantic province. Kirby of course represents Newfoundland and Labrador. From PEI comes Tim Chiasson, out of Nova Scotia is Kim Wempe, and New Brunswick's rep is Andy Brown. Each one is an accomplished writer and solo performer already, and each is relishing the task of learning and playing their colleagues' material. The full rules haven't been announced yet, so whether the others team up at times isn't clear, and it might be as much a surprise to the performers as it will be to the audience.

I say that with a bit of insider knowledge (or lack thereof). I'm going to MC the first three shows of the tour, in the New Brunswick venues. And no, they aren't even telling me what songs they are doing yet, so it should be a fun evening. It's a rare concert where you don't know what you're going to hear when you go, just that it will be good.

After NB, the show hits the road for Nova Scotia and PEI for this leg of the tour, and it's the kind of idea that could have a long shelf live. Here are the tour dates:

Friday, Dec. 2 - Vintage Bistro, Hampton, NB - 9 PM
Sat. Dec. 3 - Arena Complex Theatre, St. Andews, NB - 8 PM
Sun. Dec. 4 - Charlotte St. Arts Centre, Fredericton, NB - 8 PM
Mon. Dec. 5 - Al Whittle Theatre, Wolfville, NS - 8 PM
Tues. Dec. 6 - Shannon Studio, Civic Centre, Port Hawksbury, NS - 7:30 PM
Weds. Dec. 7 - The Carleton, Halifax - 9 PM
Thurs. Dec. 8 - Harmony House Theatre, Hunter River, PEI - 8 PM