Two time Juno -award winner Jenny Whiteley enjoyed her first South Country Fair gig, July 17-19 in Fort Macleod.
Drummer Erik Allen, who played on Whiteley’s second solo CD, “Hopetown” handpicked a band including guitarist Dave Bauer and bassist Sherry Wray to play the South Country Fair.
“I just met Dave yesterday. He plays guitar and mandolin,” Whiteley said following her Saturday evening set, which included “Banjo Girl” — one of the highlights off of ‘Dear,’ and which sounded great played on mandolin.
“We came in rehearsed for a couple hours ran through the songs and called it a rehearsal. We were going to rehearse again today but it was too bloody hot. So we just hung out and saved our energy for the crowd,” she said.
She played the Winnipeg folk festival last week where she was teaching songwriting , went home for a couple days and then flew out to Calgary for this show.
“I’ve never been here before, but knowing it was Alberta and Fort Macleod, I play Alberta quite a bit and thought maybe I’d focus on country songs. So I sent them a set list focusing on my country music and less on my folk and pop songs,” she said.
“We just kind of rocked the country a little a bit. Those guys were great. It was really good,” she said adding she enjoyed the fair.