Tuesday night, March 8, was a great night to sing the blues.
Mwansa Mwansa and Aaron Collier properly warmed up an enraptured audience with a beautiful set of modern pop and R and B of the likes of Alicia Keys and sang some superb new originals including the very pretty female power anthem “She Saves The World” and a beautiful more ’50s and ’60s pop
influenced original number about her parents called “I Want To Live.”
After Mwansa Mwansa received a standing ovation for unleashing her powerful pipes, Edmonton born, Toronto based Samantha Martin and her band Delta Sugar took the stage for a solid, fun filled set of gospel and blues music with a touch of alternative country music.
Martin, perched precariously on high heeled shoes, which she later abandoned after getting them caught in the stage one too many times, thanked Geomatic Attic’s Mike Spencer for booking her on the word of MonkeyJunk’s Steve Marriner.
Lead guitarist Mikey McCallum ’s solos and riffs on his Gretsch gave the music a ’50s/ ’60s rockabilly feel while backup singers Sherie Marshall and Stacy Tabb added a whole lot of soul to the sound.
When drummer Dani Nash added her vocals, while keeping a steady beat, the result was spine tinglingly amazing.
Martin herself strummed a gorgeous open tuned gold or bronze resonator guitar for that more gritty blues numbers including a fantastic version of blues classic “John the Revelator,” made famous by Son House.
She mostly played music from her most recent CD “ Send the Nightingale” which was awesome as it drips with soul and a whole lot of blues. I haven’t listened to the CD for a few months, but she had me singing along as the catchy tunes like “Don’t shoot (the messenger) immediately came back to me.
Martin’s road wearied, raspy voice sounded like a mix of Janis Joplin singing gospel music mixed with Darby Mills singing the blues and just a touch of modern influences like Angel Forrest.
“Road to You” and “Addicted” were original highlight as was their Staples singers cover of “Coming Home”
she prefaced a lot of her songs were about trying to make lemonade out of lemons, but never having enough sugar.
An original she wrote with Suzie Vinnick in an old church she lives in was another highlight.
“My Crown” ended with one of her back up singers grinning as she put a tambourine on top of her head like a crown.
She received a standing ovation and a request for some Janis Joplin. Instead she and her band played an old Tina Turner song. She returned on her own to end the show on a sombre, Delta blues note, accompanying herself on her steel resonator.
