People love the Windy City Opry, partially because it always features excellent country and roots music and partially it starts early and ends early on a weeknight. Such was the case for the latest edition, March 15 at the Slice, moved to the third Wednesday of the month this time, rather than the usual second 
Wednesday.
It didn’t hurt that It featured Southern Alberta country band Tin and the Toad, who are always a popular draw.
I missed host Shaela Miller as well as the opening set from Brooke Wylie and Tin and the Toad’s first set which focused on the CD release party for their latest CD “Out of the Wind.”
Luckily they returned for a second set of crowd favourites and well chosen covers including a request for Andrew Neville and the Poor Choices’“Coming Home To You.”
They also played a couple of my favourites from their first CD as Pete Loughlin traded his bass for an acoustic guitar to sing “Keeping this Bar Alive,” which he dedicated to former Slice owners Jesse and Tyler Freed and new owner Jesse Smith.
Brooke Wylie joined them to add extra harmonies to Tin and the Toad’s already excellent vocal harmonies.
Their vocal harmonies are one of the things I like the most about Tin and the Toad along with their down home country song and Steve Loree’s steel guitar and electric guitar solos. The band includes four different songwriters who each have their own appealing unique voices, which come together as one on each other’s songs.
They also included another of my favourites “ Reminders.”
And just to be cool, they ended their show before midnight by turning punk band SNFU’s “Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump” into a solid country song.
