It should be a fun week as the Christmas season kicks into high gear.

But first, Keith Woodrow hosts the Slice of Blues jam on Tuesday, Dec. 10 at the Slice beginning at around 8:30 p.m.

 Also on Tuesday, Write For Rights at the Owl Acoustic lounge features performances by Stephanie Brave Rock & Olivia Tailfeathers, Will Big Bull
Mandy Fox, Katie Jo Rabbit and more. There will be a silent auction and more. Admission is free.  It begins at 6 p.m.

Next, the Geomatic Attic  finishes the year with southern Saskatchewan duo Kacy and Clayton, performing, Dec. 11 with Ellen Froese. They are touring in support of their latest CD “ Carrying On.”

Wednesday is a big night for roots music as local roots collective Dark Wrangler play the Slice. Dark Wrangler includes Don Cassell, Dil Jopp, Tyler Bird, Megan and Mel will be performing with Makiisma and Corduroy Brown. Megan Brown, Corduroy Brown plus Chris Drew and Wendy Cee will be playing the Owl Acoustic Lounge on Friday, Dec. 13.
 The Slice has a big week as they help the Windy City Opry celebrate their third anniversary with a big show on Friday, Dec. 13 featuring Lethbridge favourites Calgary rockabilly band Peter and the Wolves and Calgary country musician Amy Nelson. There are more prizes and giveaways for this show, so tickets are $10 in advance and $15 at the door.
 The Decadent Phase play the Slice on Saturday.
 And Jaymz Joseph hosts the open mic at the Slice on Thursday.

Of course, there are a lot of Christmas shows coming up.
 Bridgette Yarwood’s vocal students will be performing “Voices of Winter” at a rescheduled show at Cité Des Prairies, Dec. 11. Another prominent vocal teacher, Andi Roberts, will feature some of her students performing at City Hall for “Sounds of the Season,” at 2:30 p.m. on Dec. 20.
But before that, TJ. Waltho brings back his Charlie Brown Christmas show to Stoketown on Dec. 12.  He plus bassist Paul Holden and drummer Brad Brouwer were also  performing it at the handmade market and at the Bavura Brunch at the old firehall on the weekend.

Another sign of Christmas is the CP Holiday Train, a cross country cavalcade of stories and song that raises money for  local food banks.
 The Holiday Train stops by Save On Foods at 7 p.m, Tuesday, Dec. 10. Country stars Terri Clark and Dallas Smith are the featured performers. Donations will be accepted for local food banks. The train arrives at 7 p.m., with the music happening from 7:15- 7:45 p.m.

Southern Saskatchewan duo Kacy And Clayton are “Carrying on” with their fifth CD, the ensuing tour carries on to the Geomatic Attic, Dec. 11.

 “It reflects a lot of our influences we’ve been listening to lately,” said Clayton Linthicum taking a breather in between tours from his home in Glentworth, Saskatchewan.

“ We listen to a lot of country music from the late ’60s like  Gene Clark and Lee Hazelwood and a lot of  psychedelic music mixed with country music,” he said.
 He and compatriot Kacy Anderson will be joined  by their rhythm section of drummer Mike Silverman and bassist Andy Basil for this tour.

“ We’ve been playing a lot as a duo, so it is really exciting to  play with the band,” said Linthicum, who also plays with Deep Dark Woods when scheduling permits.
 “Kacy and Clayton are so busy. Most of our time is spent touring. But we still play with them. We’re on their latest album,” he continued.

“ The songs are shorter in Kacy and Clayton and there are fewer members than the Deep Dark Woods. We have similar influences,” he noted.

After 20 some years in the business, two Juno awards, a couple theatre soundtracks and 17 albums including his latest –“Median Age Wasteland” and another on the way, you’d think  Hawksley Workman might have come down with a case of writers block somewhere  along the way.
 It s not the case, now that  he has resigned himself to never becoming rich and famous.

“Bob Dylan has a quote like being rich is having the freedom to do whatever you want. And I’ve been lucky enough to carve out a living doing just that, which is difficult in Canada. And Im really grateful for that,” said Workman, looking a at a grey, dreary London day, looking forward to a sold out show  in London Ontario, one of several shows which are already sold out on this tour.
 He brings his long time band the Wolves including keyboardist Todd Lumley aka Mr. Lonely, bassist Derrick Brady and  drummer Brad Kilpatrick, to the University Theatre to play  a special show for  the Geomatic Attic, Nov. 23.

“There was a time, when I was in Sweden, spending time in studios where the sound of American radio was born, when I still thought I could get rich. I thought I could write hits for other people, but that’s not how I work. My creativity dried up because I wasn’t giving it the respect it deserved,” he said.

“I was never meant for mass consumption I guess, I was meant for a small, select group of people. I think I’m playing stuff people like,” he observed.
 he has had a “banger of a Year” full of touring, recording his own music, recording music with folks like Sarah Slean, and theatre.
He composed a soundtrack for a musical version of ’80s movie “Never-Ending Story.”

“I spent three and a half months working on the soundtrack. It was an important part of my youth. it was the only VHS tape my small rural school had, so I must have seen it hundreds of times.. One time in the early ’80s, there was a solar eclipse, so they put as all in the gym and  showed us that movie,” he recalled.
 “For the soundtrack, we didn’t have access to original elements of the movie, so I went for a nostalgic feel to celebrate the movie,” he said, adding he enjoyed working with a director.