I’ll I admit I’m a little bit of a stamp tramp as I like pretty much everything I hear, but some acts really stand out for me— like 
Edmonton bluesman Marshall Lawrence, who brought his brand new band through a veritable blizzard to play for a disgraceful five, maybe 10 people, at the Slice, March 22.
It is a good thing he has a sense of humour and isn’t much put off by poor turnouts.
The man is amazing enough when just accompanying himself on acoustic guitar, but sizzles when he plugs in and turns it up. He did just that through two superb sets ( I missed his opening acoustic set) of original blues songs and blues classics.
He beamed from ear to ear and wandered into the audience with his bassist Maurie Jarvis.
Lawrence didn’t miss a note as he wandered behind the bar and ordered a couple of shots then meandered back to the stage among the audience as the bartender followed him with the shots.
He played a lot of new songs and transformed some of the more acoustic rockers off his previous acoustic albums into high powered, electrifying blues rockers.
“ I love all of you,” Lawrence cried to the “small but powerful crowd.”
His third set amped up the intensity into more blaring, psychedelic blues rock jams which had everyone in the room cheering.
Around one in the morning, he was still playing and wandered out into the snow playing with Jarvis.
When plugged in, he reminded me a lot of Irish bluesman Rory Gallagher.
He returned inside and invited the audience onto the stage with him to sing “ I Want to Make Love To You” to finish his show before a long drive back to Edmonton.
