Forget, Saskatchewan delta bluesman Ken Hamm makes a long awaited return to Lethbridge to play a Lethbridge Folk Club show at the Cave at Lethbridge College, Oct. 24.
I’ve been playing a lot more,” said Hamm, from his cottage near Runnymede on the manitoba border where he and his wife Heather go to get away from it all.
“I closed my store in Forget, so I’ve been playing a lot more,” said Hamm, who last played Lethbridge over two years ago with Linda McRae.
Though he has been a professional musician for close to 40 years, he still gets to places he has never been before.
“I was doing a Home Routes house concert tour around northern Saskatchewan and Fort McMurray. So I got to see that. I’d never been there before. I’m from a northern town in Manitoba, so I can identify with people in the north. But I have a large audience who seem to like what I do,” he said, adding he is back to booking his own shows.
“ I used to have an agent for that, but I’m booking my own shows again, which keeps me closer to the house, but I consequently I’m also laying a lot more,” he said.
Hamm is also working on new material for a new CD.
“ I’ll record a new CD next year. So I have a lot more new songs in my repertoire when I come to Lethbridge,” he said.
“The guy who recorded all of my other CD passed away a couple of years ago, so I’ll be recording somewhere else, ” he said adding he has a couple other opportunities, but it is a tough decision.
“The vibe of the studio is important. I can’t just record in a sterile studio. I need
to get a rapport going with a guy before I record,” he said.
He said he is writing new music and looking back to his past to the songs he played I when he was a folk singer.
“I’m working on some new instrumentals and revisiting a couple of old folk songs I used to play when I was younger. The things they were singing about back then are still happening to day,” he said. So I’m going forward as well as backward,” he said.
He is looking forward to playing two sets for the Folk Club.
“Last time I was only playing a 45 minute set, which is just a taste,” he said.
His wife Heather will be traveling with him, but the show will be all Hamm.
“She just published a book of poetry, so she may read a poem but for the most part it is my show,” he said.
The show begins at 8 p.m., Oct. 24 at the Cave in Lethbridge College.
Tickets are $25 for members, $30 for invited guests, which includes a year membership.