Neal Hall, Sun Court Reporter Vancouver Sun

At the end of her fifth day on the witness stand at her trial involving a legal dispute over songwriting, pop star Sarah McLachlan smiled as she ended her testimony Tuesday and resumed her seat at a table behind her lawyers, where she will continue listening to the rest of the evidence.

"There's no padding on the seat," she jokingly told a Vancouver Sun reporter about her uncomfortable experience in the witness box.

Earlier in the day, McLachlan sang and played a 12-string guitar to demonstrate the evolution of two songs: Vox from her 1988 debut album, Touch, and Drawn to the Rhythm from her follow-up album, Solace, which was released in 1991.

She was demonstrating how Darryl Neudorf, who is suing McLachlan, wrote a violin part for Vox that was eventually recorded in the studio.

McLachlan, 30, explained that Neudorf wrote the violin part using a four-chord syncopated guitar line she created, which she played for B.C. Supreme Court Justice Bruce Cohen, who is hearing the case without a jury.

The singer maintained Neudorf's changes and suggestions, which were incorporated in her songs on Touch, did not amount to songwriting but fell within the role of arranger and producer. She said Neudorf was hired to produce McLachlan's demo tapes.

She showed how her current producer, Pierre Marchand, changed a section of the song Drawn to the Rhythm from A major to F-sharp minor, which, she noted, is what producers get paid to do.

"Pierre's an incredible musician and composer -- he's a genius," McLachlan testified, noting that Neudorf isn't in the same league as Marchand.

"I think, unfortunately, Darryl has a very elevated . . . a deluded sense of what he did on this project," she said.

Neudorf, 34, claims he co-wrote the music of four songs -- Vox, Strange World, Steaming and Sad Clown -- on McLachlan's debut album, which went on to sell more than 625,000 copies. As well, he claims he also co-produced the album and was never adequately credited or compensated.

He testified he was brought into the "Sarah Project," as it was then called, in early 1988 to help McLachlan develop songs before she went into the recording studio in March 1988.

Neudorf recalled he was even helping finish off songs in the back of the studio with McLachlan, who at the time was working in a Vancouver coffee shop by day and recording her debut album at night.

McLachlan was 19 when she was signed to a five-record recording deal in October 1987. At the time, she had just moved to Vancouver from her native Halifax and had never written a complete song before.

Neudorf testified he extracted parts of songs from "meandering ideas" McLachlan played on piano and guitar. He also claimed he wrote sections of music to improve the songs.

The trial will continue today with the testimony of Greg Reely, the 35-year-old producer of the Touch album. He testified Tuesday that before producing McLachlan he had produced such Vancouver bands as French Letters, Grapes of Wrath, Skinny Puppy, Brilliant Orange, Animal Slaves and Moev.

He was asked to produce McLachlan's album by Mark Jowett, a former guitarist with Moev who discovered McLachlan and signed her to the fledgling Vancouver-based Nettwerk record label.

Reely said he had worked with the Vancouver band 54-40 while Neudorf was the band's drummer.

Now a Vancouver record producer, Neudorf co-wrote a song with 54-40 called I Go Blind, which became a hit for the U.S. band Hootie and the Blowfish.

Named as defendants in the trial are McLachlan, Nettwerk, her manager Terry McBride and his business partners Jowett and Ric Arboit.

McBride and Jowett are expected to testify this week at the trial, originally scheduled for three weeks and now in its fifth week.