The Slice was sold out for the third anniversary of Shaela Miller’s Windy City Opry, Friday, Dec. 13.
I expected it would be as Peter and the Wolves was headlining and they always play a good show.
Shaela Miller opened with a few songs including Roger Miller’s “Doo Wacka Do.”
Calgary country singer Amy Nelson, celebrating her 27th birthday, played a surprisingly blues filled set a lot due to an impressive steel guitarist and slide guitarist. Nelson strummed a hollow body guitar and had a drummer holding down the rhythm.
Peter and the Wolves had trimmed back to a trio for this show. The last time I saw them, they had three back up dancers/ singers and multi-instrumentalists.
But they stripped things back to the bare bones, with the bulk of the set focusing on piano for the first part of the set.
Frontman Peter Cormier channeled his inner Jerry Lee Lewis for the first part of the set, playing classic rock and roll from the likes of Little Richard, Ray Charles and Jerry Lee Lewis.
He also went way back for some 1920s ragtime. They played several highlights including “Travelling Light” as was his beautiful cover of blues classic St. James Infirmary as well as a great cover of “ I’ve Been Everywhere.”
He picked up his guitar as Shaela Miller joined him in a duet of Ernest Tubb’s “Thanks A Lot.”
Cormier played a couple of new songs like “Smoking in the Kitchen,”as well as crowd favourites, like “Jailbird Josephine,” which had a good part of the audience showing their best rock and roll moves on the dance floor.
