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Things are starting to pick up in Lethbridge this week, though it is mostly talented local acts performing.
There are a couple of cool mid-week blues shows happening this week with Paul Kype playing a showcase at the Black Tomato Lounge on the west side. Kype also hosts an open mic at the Slice on Jan. 17. Lethbridge harp player Rocking Reggie and friends will be playing the blues at the Slice on Jan. 12.
For something a little more low key, the Mocha Cabana hosts James Oldenburg on Jan. 13 and Alyssa McQuaid on Jan. 14. The Owl Acoustic Lounge features Michael Granzow with special guest Jesse Northey on Jan. 14.
Matt Robinson and Brenna Lowrie play the Owl on Friday, Jan. 13.
If you miss that performance, Robinson opens for Lethbridge country band the Coal Creek Boys, which debuts its CD “Hard at it in Old Town” at the Slice on Jan. 14. The show is scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. Admission is $10.
Coal Creek Boys unveiling new album
The Coal Creek Boys is an amalgamation of two popular Lethbridge bands — lead singer/guitarist Johnpaul Smith and multi-instrumentalist Dino Scavo from Sleeping with Tuesday, and guitarist Devin Gergel and drummer Dustin Gergel from the Necessities, along with backup singer Ali Stuart. The band combines pop songwriting hooks with the storytelling of folk music, and the twang and gritty storytelling of traditional country music. It explores a variety of Canadian historical themes along the lines of like Tim Hus, Stompin’ Tom Connors and Tanglefoot.
The 18-track country/rock CD “Hard at it in Old Town” explores a variety of subjects including the Elk Valley’s rich, vibrant and colourful coal-mining history. Smith grew up in a coal-mining community and worked in the mine alongside his brother and father. There are a plethora of stories on the CD about miners, mine disasters and interesting characters like murderer Samuel Hickory Cobb, Irish immigrants fighting in the U.S.. Civil War, war widows, The James Gang and gunfighter and folk hero Calamity Jane. The limited-edition CD includes a full-colour booklet featuring old photos and telling the stories behind the songs.
Smith noted the CD was an opportunity to share the stories of Elk Valley.
“I love sharing these stories. The people of the area are forgetting why they are here.”
“Hard at it in Old Town,” (an old Fernie reference meaning when a resident from Coal Creek went to Fernie to have a night on the town), is a hard-hitting album embracing the traditional outlaw country sounds of today and yesterday.
“We wanted to record it live off the floor, so if there were any mistakes, we left them in if they weren’t too bad,” said Smith.
“We wanted it to sound like us.”
A couple of other special guests performing at the CD-release party include Sleeping With Tuesday’s Ryan Mildenberger and Evan Schaaf along with Ryan Miller, who will open.
Back Porch Swing swings back into the city
Also on Saturday, Back Porch Swing returns to Lethbridge at the Lethbridge Folk Club Wolf’s Den.
“We’re very versatile. We’re like 10 bands in one,” said guitarist/mandolinist/vocalist Penny Malmberg over the phone from St. Albert where she was getting ready to play a gig in Rocky Mountain House.
The band plays the Lethbridge Folk Club Wolf’s Den on Jan. 14. Cathy Hawley opens. The show begins at 8 .m. on Jan. 14. Tickets are $25 for non-members and $20 for members.
“We like to call ourselves a cow-jazz band,” Malmberg said.
The band, which plays the Twin Butte General Store the night before, plays everywhere it can.
“We’ve played everything from Bar Mitzvahs to funerals,” she said. “We’re pretty much a full-time part-time band. None of us are brave enough to make it a full-time full-time band.”
The band is no stranger to Lethbridge, having played the Slice a couple times as well as the folk club, and is always in town for the Green Haven Pumpkin Festival every September. Plus, Malmberg’s husband and guitarist/mandolinist Jim was born and raised in Lethbridge.
Want to write a song?
There are a couple opportunities coming up for Lethbridge bands and songwriters.
First of all, the Lethbridge College Student’s Association is holding their third annual band wars, Feb. 3
The deadline to enter is Jan. 13.
“ There will be 10 bands who will get to play 20 minutes each,” summarized organizer Aaron Chubb.
There will be a completely line -up of bands this year except for third place finishers Caste of Shadows, who get a bye into this round because they had to play first at last year’s band wars— at 7 p.m. when fewer people were there to hear them.
“The score will by tallied between audience reaction and a panel of judges,” Chubb said.
First prize is $800 and second place gets $200.
Bands should e-mail
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with heir band name, genre, members and instruments, an e-mail address, a main phone number, an alternate phone number and wither an MP3 of one of their songs or a link to something like Myspace or Reverbnation, which allows listeners to preview their music. A panel of students will choose thew 10 bands to compete at Band Wars.
“ We have a lot of fun doing band wars,” Chubb said. It’s a good opportunity for fans to network with people,” he continued.
The other big competition coming up is the fourth annual South Country Fair Songwriting competition.
While the finals are March 31 at the Slice, the deadline to apply is March 1, so anybody who wants a chance to play on the main stage of the South Country Fair should start writing and perhaps recording.
There are two categories newcomer and old pro. Old pros are songwriters who have released at least one CD. Newcomers are for those who haven’t.
The winners receive cash prizes, bragging rights, gift certificates and the chance to perform their song on the main stage of the South Country Fair this year, July 20-22, 2012.
Guidelines and more information are available at www.scfair.ab.ca.
This week
Gordon Leigh and the Naked Ear play jazz music, but they don’t play your grandma’s jazz.
They put on a trippy show at the slice for approximately 20 people, Wednesday, Jan. 4.
They laid down a seductive groove of hypnotic bass and percussion and added a variety of distortion drenched guitar solos and keytar riffs as lead singer Gordon Leigh alternated between delivering deadpan poetry and playing the flugelhorn and keytar.
They jammed on a Herbie Mann tune called “Memphis Underground,” and then went “Out of Control,” with some poetry and a couple other songs.
Throughout their percussionist played an array of different and unusual instruments.
Church showed a different side of themselves at the Owl, Jan. 6. Lead guitarist Leigh Doerksen and drummer Dan Puurveen added bassist Evan John Eushenko, who often plays with Leeroy Stagger, for an impromptu performance of upbeat, groove filled blues rock.
Doerksen showed off his impressive tenor voice in a set that featured his tortured Telecaster sound which was reminiscent of the dirty low down blues of Hound Dog Taylor and The Perpetrators with just a touch of Neil Young and Crazy Horse.
I arrived in the middle of a slower bluesy number, but they picked up the tempo, added some slide guitar powered blues and morphed into a big riff filled Govt. Mule type jam.
Eushenko fit in seamlessly with the duo especially considering he just contacted them just hours before the gig.
Local trios triumphed at the Slice, Jan. 6 as Lethbridge experimental David Bowie-tinged indie rock trio New Weather Machine and progressive rock trio Lustre Creame shone for a live recording.
The New Weather Machine featuring Jon Martin on lead guitar and vocals, Jesse Northey on bass and Clayton Smith on drums, played pretty much a set of new music with some crowd favourites added to the mix.
Martin made his guitars scream and displayed an impressive voice and superb guitar playing through several unhinged guitar solos.
They even played a quick set of obscure David Bowie Songs plus “Young Americans,” in honour of Bowie’s birthday and ended with some upbeat originals from the New Weather Machine’s CD.
Lustre Creame were locked in and at the top of their game because they knew they were recording the show. So they added played a solid set of Tool tinged progressive rock chock full of big guitar riffs, intricate bass lines, time tempo changes and an unstoppable beat from drummer Chris Lipinski.
They played a set of familiar songs from their debut CD including “Finger Excercize” and “Sex Piss,” plus a couple new songs and something they said was a Matchbox 20 song, but sounded like the furthest thing from it.
Guitarist Aaron Trozzo played a plethora of finger-bleeding riffs and bassist Jeff Orriss added some intense bass and vocals on “Battle Metal,” one of the show’s many highlights.
There‘s nothing like a gypsy flavoured fiddle to get the feet moving — add an accordion and you’ve got a party. That’s the way it looked as the Tequila Mockingbird Orchestra returned to Lethbridge to play a soldout show at the Slice, Jan. 7 with Laser Cake from Calgary.
Laser Cake started the show with an upbeat set of melodic, piano powered indie rock.
They sang a lot of appealing soulful vocals, harmonized with each other and had the good sized audience grooving to their original music.
Everyone was there to relive a slice of the the South Country Fair, where The Tequila Mockingbird Orchestra has been a highlight for the past two years.
While they started off slowly with a beautifull, slow , they had most of the audience on their feet from the start, clustered in front of the stage, chanting “oh,oh,oh” along with them.
While lead singer Kurt Loewen noted they had changed their sound to a more goove laden indie- folk rock sound, they wear their gypsy roots on thier sleeves. They have retained their exotic, gypsy inspired sound which the crowd really responded to.
“We like you guys,” cried lead vocalist Kurt Loewen as the crowd sang along with “Well, Well, Well.”
THe Tequila Mockingbird Orchestra sounded a littlle like Los Lonely joys,wexcept with an even more exotic flair. they even sang a song in Portuguese.
They slowly picked up the tempo and had most of the crowd by the end as the band sang fantastic vocal harmonies and added a little mandloin and lots of fiddle into the mix of accordion, bass, drums and guitar, which kept the crowd hopping for a solid hour before they called it a night. They were called back for an encore, as the band jumped into the middle of the crowd to play a couple acoustic songs, which had them all singing along.
Jan. 11
Owl — L.A. Beat Open mic
Ric’s Grill — Ain’t Misbehavin with Bridgette Yarwood and Evan Schaaf
Black Tomato Lounge — Paul Kype
Jan. 12
Good Earth Coffee House — Renee Werenka and Friends
Slice — Rockin Reggie
Jan. 13
Owl Acoustic Lounge — Matt Robinson and Brenna Lowrie
The Slice — Unzipped
Casino Lethbridge — Diezel
Enmax Centre — Bill Engvall and Larry The Cable Guy, 8 p.m.
Average Joe’s — Dueling pianos
Jimmy’s Pub — open mic with Cory Oryniak and Dave Tillsley
Ric’s Grill — Davidson Porter Trio
Wolf’s Den — bluegrass jam
Mocha Cabana — James Oldenburg
Jan. 14
Casino Lethbridge— Diezel
Slice— Coal Creek Boys CD release party with Matt Robinson J.R.$10
Ric’s Grill— Cal Toth
Wolf’s Den— Back Porch Swing with Cathy Hawley
Owl Acoustic Lounge— Michael Granzow with Jesse Northey
Mocha Cabana— Alyssa McQuaid
Jan. 16
Owl Acoustic Lounge— open mic
Slice— Jazz jam with HBO3 James Oldenburg, Paul Holden, Brad Brouwer
Tuesday, Jan. 17
Slice — open mic with Paul Kype and Texas Flood
Bo Diddlys — open mic with Double Jack
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