Saskatoon area musician Ellen Froese is excited to release her first solo full band album “Fightin’ Words,” Nov. 1.

Lethbridge gets a double dose of Froese when she brings her band the Hot Toddies (drummer /vocalist Dylan Cooper; bassist/vocalist Emmett Fortosky and electric guitarist Matt Joyal)  to the Owl Acoustic Lounge, Saturday, Nov. 9, in the middle of a month long tour taking her to Ottawa and back. She plays Lethbridge again,  playing a solo show with Kacy and Clayton at the Geomatic Attic, Dec. 8. She is also playing Twin Butte Store, Nov. 8.

She has released a couple of albums with her bluegrass band In with the Old, and a full length, more folk solo album.
The new album is a lot different.

“ There’s a lot of ’60s and ’70s style pop, and some traditional country, a couple of ballads. It’s a groovy, fun record,” said Froese, taking a quick break from helping out on her parents’  dairy farm.

 She recorded the album at Saskatoon studio Ghettobox Studio with Jill Mack.
 “She’s a good friend. I used her on the last album,” she said, adding Kacy Anderson from the duo Kacy and Clayton produced the album. 

“That was great. She has a great  ear and could tell my band what to do so i didn’t have to,” she chuckled.

“And She had a lot of ideas I never would have thought of. I had a song that was more of a laid back tropical feel and she turned it into a punk song,” she said, noting song lyrics are about her life.
“ I write about working on the farm and relationships. Have a song called Charlie, about a horse that dies in the Frank’s Slide,” she noted.
 She is looking forward to touring across the country with her band for the next month.

She has been playing with her band for about three years.
“The Saskatoon music scene is  really close. So All I had to do was ask them to be my band and they said yes,” she enthused.

 She hasn’t played Lethbridge very often.

“I played a house concert there, but I’ve heard a lot of great things about the Owl Acoustic Lounge,” she said.
“ I’m getting to play a lot of venues I’ve never played before. We wanted to go all the way to Montreal on this tour but we couldn’t make it work. When I was 17 I was in the bluegrass band and we went to Montreal and back,” she said.
Tyler Allen from Boots and the Hoots and several other central Alberta bands will be opening the show.