Local pop/ folk band the Necessities had a busy weekend with a couple gigs.
They packed the Owl Acoustic Lounge, Saturday, Sept. 24 with an upbeat set of music mostly from their CD “Forbidden Fruit.”
They began with crowd favourites “Brian Wells,” and “(Tin Can Soup) The Goat Song and then took things down a notch.
They were also a highlight of a sweltering Word on the Street Festival, Sept. 25. They started their mid-afternoon set with “Death To The Sun” an extremely apt choice considering the heat, played several tracks from “Forbidden Fruit,” and even brought out a didgeridoo.
Word on the Street was a street festival in every sense of the word, a couple of the streets being blocked off for the event.
The clash of arms from University of Lethbridge Medieval club wafted through the air battling for attention with words and music from dozens of musicians, poets and writers performing in numerous different venues.
It was almost an embarrassment of riches for the dozens of families, youth, prospective writers, readers and Clifford the Big Red Dog wandering through numerous tents of authors and writing related organizations who might have wanted to catch multiple attractions all happening simultaneously.
The main stage was running a little late, leading to numerous acts having to cut their sets short, but there was no shortage of talent.
While I didn’t catch all of the acts including young metal band Shocked Standards who opened the after
noon, each act got a chance to show what they could do and did so.
Local country/ folk singer Karen Romanchuk and her band played a solid set of original material, mostly from their new CD “Dance” including lots of 
Telecaster twang from Pete Watson while David Popvitch grooved and Darwin Romanchuk added the drums.
Curt Young and Jamie Medicine Crane added some First Nations culture, dressed in traditional clothing and got the crowd involved by handing out shakers and noise makers for them to add rhythm.
Meanwhile, the Shaela Miller Threesome set up behind enthusiastic poet Sheri D Wilson.
Stand-up bassist Paul Holden, who set up first, gave her set a beatnik flavour as he played a silky smooth jazz beat behind her words.
The Shaela Miller Threesome launched into several Shaela Miller favourites 
featuring plenty of country twang and drenched in pedal steel guitar.
The highlight of the afternoon for me was seeing Edmonton bluesman Marshall Lawrence’s brief set on the main stage.
He began with a couple frenetic versions of Robert Johnson’s “Walking Blues,” and “Come On In in My Kitchen,” which he sent out to the women in the audience.
He then played a variety of fleetly picked originals form his previous two CDs as well as a new one from his next CD “House Call,” which he said he “cleaned up a little because of all of the families in the audience.”
Some of the highlights were “Keep on Walking,” from his second CD and a couple from his “Morning After” Cd.
John Wort Hannam also played a solid set of solo acoustic material including several crowd favourites and one he wrote about a friend of his with Lou Gehrig’s Disease.
