Michele LeTourneau
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Nov 12/99) - Asked what location the Wyrd Sisters -- a Winnipeg trio made up of Kim Baryluk, Nancy Reinhold and Lianne Fournier -- have found most interesting, Reinhold remembers two previous trips up North.

"They were early on in our career so I think they felt particularly exciting at the time," remembers Reinhold.

The Wyrd Sisters played Folk on the Rock in 1992 and a music festival in Inuvik in '1993.

"Showing up there at three in the morning and having everyone still up, that was pretty interesting. Sunset all night ... it was really unusual."

"Festivals are the best," according to Reinhold

"We get into as many as we can. Folk festivals are lways something we've done right from the beginning."

The Wyrd Sisters, nominated for Junos in '96 and '98, got their first gigs quite suddenly after forming. They had to come up with a name fast.

"It's one of the names of an ancient triple goddess. This is one Nordic translation of the name. You've probably heard of things like the three fates -- the maiden, the mother and the crone -- the three witches in Macbeth were also known as the weird sisters."

The three women thought it would be interesting to bring an obscure term back "into present history in a new form."

"And something to live up to," laughs Reinhold.

As for what has been most fulfilling in the group's career, Reinhold considers before replying.

"One of the things that was most moving, in terms of how we'd like our music to affect people, is the number of groups, choirs, even small unorganized groups who've written us for permission to perform Kim's song, Warrior.

"That's sort of made its way around the world without us. A group in Australia did record it and we've gotten letters from Japan, Germany, all over Canada and the United States, everywhere. Often they'll do it in conjunction with the Dec. 6 celebration (for the Montreal Massacre when 14 women were killed). This Memory is another song they'll often use, because it's written about that."Warrior is a powerful and uplifting a cappella song that has been taken on as an anthem by many.

Having other people perform the song, to the point where it has universal appeal, seems to Reinhold to be the point of such a song in the first place.

"It takes on a life of its own. But at the time we wrote it, that's not what we were thinking."

A similar thing has happened to Farewell to Clayoquot, about clear-clutting at Clayoquot Sound.

"We had met a few of the protestors at the Edmonton Folk Festival, of all places, who described what was going on there ... in terms of the lives of the protestors being changed."

The Wyrd Sisters recorded the song on cassette and sent it on to the Friends of Clayoquot Sound in support of their efforts.

Even though these songs in particular are very political and have captured the imagination of their fans, Reinhold, Baryluk and Fournier offer a broader range of material.

"They are important but that's not all we are," Reinhold says.

"We have a lot of material that's much more deeply personal."

That same sort of inability to pigeonhole their themes applies to their style of music. Though often categorized as folk music, Reinhold says that they aren't traditional folk. Their sound, thanks to singer Fournier, incorporates a jazzier feel. And they are no longer as acoustic as they once were.

"We're definitely vocally and lyrically oriented and everything else is layered around that."

The Wyrd Sisters play the Northern Arts and Cultural Centre Nov. 19 and 20.