Calgary blues/ country musician Erin Ross never gets the audience she deserves in Lethbridge, even when accompanied by a hot band of drummer Lloyd Peterson and bassist Brenden McGuigan, called the Rhythm Method, for a sparsely attended show at the Slice on Friday, Aug.24. Granted she was competing with Harlequin at Whoop up Days and the opening night of Flipfest. But unperturbed by lack of numbers, she still killed it through a set of traditional blues and country music plus several of her own songs.
 Ross is always a delight to watch and hear, and having the Rhythm Method behind her, she was able to show how talented of a guitarist she is by breaking into some tasteful soloing.

She sang in a voice that was alternately sultry and twangy depending on what she was playing. Her more country numbers reminded me a little of Bobby Gentry, but she could also belt out the blues beautifully as her  more bluesy numbers reminded me more  of Sue Foley. “Another Empty Day,” was an original highlight.

She played some tasteful slide guitar as she switched axes to a Resonator guitar for a few older blues numbers. She showed a lot of range from an excellent version of ZZ Top’s “Beer Drinkers and Hell Raisers” and some older blues from Skip James and even tackled some BB King.

She wound down her first set with some of her original country music.
Three fifths of Rancho Deluxe including George Arsene, bassist Paul Holden and drummer Brad Brouwer opened the show with a set of mostly original country and folk music.