For me, February is a great time to sing the blues or else hear a couple of Canada’s best sing it.
So I was simultaneously pleased and disappointed to hear harp-meister Paul Reddick and MonkeyJunk’s Steve Marriner backed by drummer Peter Hendrickson at the Slice, Feb. 12.
Disappointed because there were only 25 or so people there to see them and they deserve 10 times more and pleased because it was about three times as many as were there the last time Paul Reddick came to town and pleased because, like I said, Marriner and Reddick are among Canada’s best blues rockers.
Bassist Chris Bryszyki was touring with them for most of their tour but had headed home to Edmonton for another gig. That left Marriner to hold down the bottom end with his baritone guitar as well as lead duties. He also took a turn on harp, playing a beautiful harmonized harp on Reddick’s song “Villanelle,” to end their first set.
Marriner a adds a different string to traditional blues with the baritone guitar, adding an almost countryish feel to it. He is a phenomenal musician. He is a talented guitarist and also has a gorgeous tenor voice which showed on a couple of songs.
Reddick and company are far from traditional bluesmen, though they are firmly rooted in the traditional but both take it into strange and very cool new directions. Drummer Peter Hendrickson kept everything grounded solidly in rock and roll music.
Reddick showed he has a distinctive voice throughout as he played songs from throughout his career.
The trio have some impressive musical chops which they showed on a couple of impressive jams including “ Working at the Smokehouse” which ended the first set.
They took a break during which they lost a lot of their audience who left because they had to get up early for work. But by the time the second set rolled around they had acquired an almost entirely new audience which was great to see.
I arrived back in time to hear the end of an extended jam on “Whiskey is the Life of a man” from Reddick’s most recent CD “Wishbone.”
Reddick played some wicked harp and turned lead vocal duties to Marriner for a couple of songs including the catchy “Let’s Do the Wrong,” which sounded a little like Dr. John.
They wound down their second set with a close to 10 minute jam on a cover of Lazy Lester’s “ I’m A Lover Not A Fighter” featuring vocals by Marriner which sounded similar to JW Jones’ vocals and a beautiful harp solo from Reddick plus another uptempo drum solo from drummer Peter Hendrickson.
They wound up their show just after 1 a.m. with Reddick’s own “ I’m A Criminal” from his 2001 CD “Rattlebag.”
— By Richard Amery, L.A. beat Editor
