There were only a dozen or so people on hand to see Montreal songwriter Bobby Dove and Northern B.C funnyman/ songwriter Joey Only at the Owl Acoustic lounge, Friday, July 28.
George Arsene opened the show with a handful of songs including “ Whiskey, I Owe,” and another one he has on Skinny Dyck’s Twenty One night stands compilation.
Montreal songwriter Bobby Dove returned to Lethbridge to play a solo set of mostly original music full of melancholy melodies, counter balanced by bright guitar picking.
So he sounded like kd lang in places, and Lucinda Williams in other places and added a the element of classic country crooners like Patsy Cline.
She played several songs from her new CD “Thunderchild,” including a highlight, the Robert (Bobby) Hill penned “ Welcome to the Real World Again.”
In addition to her own songs, she added covers of Hank Williams’“Lost Highway,” and Joe Ely’s “She Never Spoke Spanish to me.”
She invited Joey Only on stage to sing “Don’t let Your Babies Grow up To be Cowboys” to wind down her set and ended with a cover of Ernest Tubbs’ “Thanks A Lot”
After a lightning quick changeover, Joey only took the stage for the complete opposite to Dove’s heartfelt , heartbroken muse.
Only played a bright set of quirky, politically incorrect and hilarious country music, setting the tone for his set with Washboard hank’s “Soundcheck song.”
Only sounded like a demented Hank Williams and reminded me of Boots and the Hoots, introducing himself as a “punk rock cowboy who will get drunk and talk bull,” which proved to be an apt description.
He opened with a quirky song about hunting and continued with a cover of Johnny Cash’s “Flush From the Bathroom of Your Heart.”
Another humourous song was “Dirty Old Egg Sucking Dog.” And another song about working at the defense plant.
He told a story about being entered in a best Canadian song competition with people like the Pack AD and Gord Downie, only to lose the contest to Aiden Knight, which he followed by playing his entry.
He gave a shout out to Bobby Dove who was celebrating a birthday the next night and played a song which could have come out of Tim Hus’ catalogue. I needed some air so heard the strains of a hilarious song about “16 Lanes of Douchebags”
He ended the show around midnight around midnight with a Washboard hank cover “Chompy the head biter offer.”
