Wide skies Music Festival free show outside Southminster United Church, July 31 was a lot of fun at least until a surprise downpour rained out  Harpoonist and the Axe Murderer.
 I arrived mid way through The Weber Brother’s energetic set of up tempo folk, which also  played with some blues and even gospel music.

 It was just The Brothers — Sam and Ryan, sans their hot band, but they killed it as a duo.

They played a variety of tracks from throughout their career, but focused a lot on their new CD “Patches.”
 Sam Weber, the lead guitarist told a story about playing one of the songs “Old record” for a tough but supportive audience of  Kris Kristofferson, Gordon Lightfoot and their mentor Ronnie Hawkins.

Upright bassist Ryan Weber alternated between that and acoustic guitar, showing he was just as talented on the guitar as on the bass. Sam switched to a Gibson SG for some of the more uptempo bluesy numbers including “Free Your mind.”

 That’s exactly what Shakura S’Aida  did on her main stage set, singing powerful blues music along the lines of Koko Taylor. she was backed by a solid band chock full of groove and attitude including a hot lead guitarist and a tough looking steel guitarist. She told stories  and let her band shone on a couple of long instrumental jams, before belting out a sweet cover of the Doobie Brothers “Taking it To the Street.”

 On the side stage Shaye Zedravic and Skinny Dyck and the Chicken Catchers delivered a sweet set of plaintive singer songwriter material.
 And just as Tom Phillips was getting warmed up  with the Chicken Catchers backing him, lightning crashed and the deluge fell, causing most of the audience to either leave or flee into the sanctuary of the church, hoping to wait it out and let Harpoonist and the Axe Murderer bring the show to a close. But it was not to be.

 Luckily Phillips was also scheduled to play an after party at the Slice with his hot band. this was fantastic. He sang authentic county music  as a tight band of bassist Tim Leacock, backup singers Shaye and Cindy Zedravic and local musicians drummer Tyler Bird, lead guitarist Shael Pezderic and Skinny Dyck on steel guitar had a few people dancing  out of a fair sized crowd, especially on a Tuesday night.

The Weber Brothers had a better turnout for their after party at the Owl Acoustic Lounge, delivering more of the same from their main stage set. So they cracked a few jokes and played a bit of folk and a lot of intense blues which had the whole room hopping by the end of their set for a hot version of rock and roll “Lawdie Miss Claudie.”