Murder Mouse Blues Band aren’t technically a blues band, a folk band, aren’t mice and, as far as I know, they haven’t murdered anybody, though they killed a couple high octane sets at the Slice for about eight people, all of whom were really caught up in the music.
The Western Australian duo included autho
r Adam Morris on vocals and guitar, multi-instrumentalist Jon Edwards and Sandesh, a fantastic drummer from Winnipeg.
I arrived in the middle of one of Jon Edwards’ many blazing mandolin solos, which sounded a lot like fiddle music, but was more influenced by rock music than traditional fiddle music like country or bluegrass.
Morris sounded a little like Billy Joel, but their music was far from it, sounding like a mix of blues and folk with healthy infusions of pop music.
The last three songs of second set were highlights including “Nothing Left to Do, ” the slide powered “Bird with a Broken Leg ” and “Bumblebee’s wedding” one of many songs featuring jaw dropping mandolin solos.
They also played an intense celtic version of the traditional Merry Mac which was reminiscent of Great Big Sea's version as it sped up every verse, as well as a sweet version of Leonard Cohen’s “Suzanne.” Their exceptional show featured lots of mandolin plus sweet, tasteful Stratocaster solos. And did I mention the fantastic mandolin playing?
