One heck of a busy Thursday night began with a close to full house at the Slice for John Wort Hannam and the Blue Collars, May 7.
Right off the top of the show, Hannam was on the ball with a whimsical political themed tune called “Goodbye Blue”, during which he rhymed Prentice with momentous, of course singing about the NDP's upset in this week’s election.
Hannam’s band the Blue Collars were on fire.
Jason Valleau held down the bottom end on upright bass and even had a drum pedal connected to the bottom of it so he could stomp out some percussion as well as playing some excellent bass solos.
Meanwhile, Scott Duncan busted out eye poppingly, finger bleeding fiddle solos while John Ellis handled all other things strings nailing solos on guitar, dobro and mandolin. Each solo from all the band members drew enthusiastic applause from an attentively listening crowd, which lead to Hannam quipping if they applaud their solos, the band members would be asking for bonuses in the van to the next gig.
Everybody got to solo bluegrass jam style, but for the most part the exceptional band only enhanced Hannam’s songs.
He played a lot of new songs, though the title track of his last CD “ Brambles and Thorns” drew especially enthusiastic applause.
Hannam was full of stories and plenty of jokes. He spoke about visiting Labrador and having to wait for a plane to take off in a blizzard. He followed it up with one of a couple songs inspired by the Maritimes.
He told a familiar one about being on tour and forgetting abut his eighteenth wedding anniversary, then being inspired to write a really touching and moving song on the spot “With one of those pens that runs out of ink after five letters” for his wife called “ Why on Earth Do You Love Me.”
The set was pretty much upbeat roots and folk music, though Hannam could have a bona fide country hit with a very catchy and cool song called “Love Lives On” which he said he wrote about teaching his son Charlie about ‘petty vandalism,” as he told a story about how people write their names on two by fours during house renovations and building, only to cover them up. Or in Hannam’s case, writing “Charlie and dad” in wet cement.
He noted he never considered himself a folk singer and never listened to folk music, but was inspired by good songs, so he ended his first set with a folkified cover of Cyndi Lauper’s ’80s hit “Time After Time.”
He will release his new CD in October.
