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Finger picking fun from Fredericton

Tuesday, 19 May 2009 21:59 Richard Amery

On Sunday, May 17, Fredericton, New Brunswick‘s Ross Neilsen and the Sufferin‘ Bastards returned to tear up the Slice with high energy blues powered by some impressive finger picking which sounded like Delta Blues on steroids and with a lot of volume. But not only did Neilsen know how to control his feedbacking cherry red hollow body Yamaha guitar.

He punished that poor axe, especially on on outstanding version of “Cortez the Killer,” squeezing every tenderly feedbacked note from it. He bent the neck and put it on the stage, tapping out notes and strange sounds.

Last Updated ( Tuesday, 19 May 2009 23:00 ) Read more...

You can never have enough violins

Tuesday, 19 May 2009 21:49 Richard Amery

If you like violin music of any kind, Murray Nelson has set up an excellent show with a novel idea for May 28 at the Slice featuring Nelson, Shaela Miller, Tyler Bird, Brad Brouwer and most prominently, renown Lethbridge luthier and fiddle player Ed Dietrich and Okotoks fiddler Andrew Dexter. Nelson will be putting the whole show on DVD and Blu Ray to be released later thanks to a generous benefactor and big fan of Ed Dietrich. The show is called 89 Violins because Dietrich has built 89 fiddles. The music will include everyhting from old county like Bob Wills to classical music.

Last Updated ( Friday, 22 May 2009 01:13 ) Read more...

Big fun at Mammoth Cave Festival

Tuesday, 19 May 2009 12:52 Richard Amery

A good sized crowd celebrated Victoria Day, May 18 at Henotic by listening to some excellent live music and by welcoming back an exhausted Endangered Ape from their cross Canada tour.

Creationist singer Ife spreading the love

There were 15 bands from Saskatoon, Calgary and Lethbridge performing on two levels of the club. It was supposed to be on the roof but changed to the GCBC Lounge and the main floor because of dodgy weather.

I arrived in time to see the Feral Children — a one man band playing guitar and singing over some instant samples done efficiently and very creatively played over hip hop drum machine beats. After that, downstairs, local band the Record Holder added a little fiddle to catchy pop music.

Then, because Forest Tate Fraser were caught on the road, the Creationists took control of the main floor, getting dancers‘ toes tapping to energetic ‘70s funk. They added a lot of colour to the day-long festival. The singer was dressed in bright white 70’s pants as he prowled among to crowd bringing the funk and spreading the love, the bassist grinned away, tossing stuffed animals attached to his pants into the crowd and the keyboardist, replete in big novelty sunglasses added to the atmosphere. They are back this Wednesday (May 20) with From Delhi to Dublin. After that a trio called the Posessed added some female powered post punk indie pop, which had the enthusiastic crowd screaming for more.

A lot of people came to see local science-punk act the Myelin Sheaths up in the GCBC Lounge. The crowd clustered close to the stage while Martine Menard, Joel Butler, Cassandra Ward and event organizer Paul Lawton sang about science and played fun but rough edge garage punk.

Last Updated ( Tuesday, 02 June 2009 21:15 ) Read more...

Treeline touring with Bob Dylan tribute

Monday, 11 May 2009 17:33 Richard Amery

Local blues/reggae/rock band Treeline embarks on a tour, May 19 to mark Bob Dylan’s 68th birthday.

“Lots of bars will do tribute nights to people like Bob Marley, so we thought this was perfect timing,” said Treeeline guitarist/keyboardist/ vocalist Taylor Ackerman who added the band learned about 20 Bob Dylan songs for the set including hits like “All Along the Watchtower and Like a “Rolling Stone” as well as relative obscurities like “Simple Twist of Fate” and “Pressing On,” as well some of their own.

“We’re pretty sure we’ll have an EP out for it too. We kind of missed the boat on it. We’ve played like 60 gigs and still haven’t put out a CD,” he continued adding fan favourites like “Rains On Me,” “Icy Roads” will be on the EP as well as one which hasn’t been titled yet.

The tour begins May 19 in Elkford, B.C., then goes to Bellevue the next day, back to the Slice on May 21, then will hit Regina, Winnipeg, Thunder Bay and Brandon.

Last Updated ( Sunday, 17 May 2009 18:46 )

Montgomery Gentry gives a taste of the south

Monday, 11 May 2009 17:28 Richard Amery

Montgomery Gentry and the Road Hammers add Southern rock to the windy city.

New country, which has been dominating the airwaves for almost 20 years now, isn’t really country at all. It’s really southern rock played with big, loud Gibson Les Pauls and Explorers (rather than the twangy Telecasters which usually mark country music), turned to the max and drop D tuned. But it does appeal to even the most base city slicker’s inner redneck. Because they sing about real people, real problems, drinking, carousing, hot rods and hillbillys. That, and the fact I surprisingly didn’t see any amps at all, was what I noticed the most about the Montgomery Gentry and Road Hammers concert at the Enmax Centre, which had a dismal turn out, May 12.

It’s too bad. And it’s a good thing all of the Road Hammers and Montgomery Gentry hits ( and there were plenty of hits to be had) have easily recognizable riffs and easily identifiable choruses, because the sound mix was wretched.

Last Updated ( Sunday, 28 June 2009 20:57 ) Read more...

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