Skinny Dyck- Palace Waiting review

Skinny Dyck Palace Waiting Sound Asleep Records While I have quite loved everything Skinny Dyck has done on previous releases, I also appreciate his continued evolution as a country artist. On his Get to Know Lonesome album, one filled with terrific, fairly straight-ahead country tunes, the darkly expressive “Dreamin’” was favoured. Before many of us…

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Billy Strings & Terry Barber, “Me/And/Dad” review

Billy Strings and Terry Barber Me/And/Dad Rounder It’s about the story. Billy Strings’ version of hillbilly rock ‘n’ roll has engulfed the Americana music community over the past several years. He has won a Grammy, as well as multiple International Bluegrass Music Association Awards including Entertainer of the Year twice, and an Americana Music Award…

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Spencer Mackenzie- Preach to My Soul review

Spencer Mackenzie Preach to My Soul SpencerMackenzie.ca Go for what you know. For youthful blues-guitarist Spencer Mackenzie, that appears to be rockin’ blues. During my formative, high school musical years listening to mainstream rock FM stations, I could hear Powder Blues, Downchild, and David Wilcox alongside a Rumours track, the next chart-climber from Pat Benatar,…

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Robert Connely Farr- Shake It review

Robert Connely Farr Shake It RobertConnelyFarr.com My introduction to Robert Connely Farr came many years ago—a dozen?—when the Mississippi-native released a set with Jon Wood under the Mississippi Live moniker. I was a fine piece of stripped-down blues, the words about which I wrote long ago left to the ravages of print and the foibles…

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Suzie Vinnick- Fall Back Home review

Suzi Vinnick Fall Back Home SuzieVinnick.com Over the last decade, Suzie Vinnick has become one of Canada’s favourite blues artists. Albums including 2018’s Shake That Love Around and 2011’s Me ‘n’ Mabel placed her on my roots radar, and Fall Back Home continues this string of impressive development. Given pandemic time to reflect, Vinnick has…

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pd adams This Curious Wonder review

pd adams This Curious Wonder Lake Front/PaulAdams.org Thirty-five years in the making, This Curious Wonder examines a world that pd adams has observed with both distress, wonder, and joy. Paul Adams is a poet and songwriter with a series of instrumental albums to his credit. This Curious Wonder appears to be his first lyrical effort,…

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Rory Block- Ain’t Nobody Worried review

Rory Block Ain’t Nobody Worried: Celebrating Great Women of Song Stony Plain Records Into her seventies, Rory Block continues to rock the blues harder than many half her age. With this third release in her Power Women of the Blues series, Block turns to slightly more contemporary material and a wider definition of blues. Playing…

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Megan Bee- Cottonwood review

Megan Bee Cottonwood MeganBeeMusic.com New to me, Cottonwood is Megan Bee’s fourth album. As a result of cross-border, postal challenges, the album came to me late but has—over the last month—made its way into consideration for my Favourite Roots Albums of 2022. Bee’s voice reminds me of Frazey Ford, although there are times her approach…

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Crystal Shawanda- Midnight Blues review

Crystal Shawanda Midnight Blues True North Records Crystal Shawanda spent years developing her artistry within the confines of commercial country music, and was quite successful doing so. She hit the Billboard Country charts, was a mainstay on Canadian country radio playlists for a couple years in the late ‘aughts, and toured from a Nashville base.…

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The Gift coming to Leduc

Coming to Leduc October 13 is The Gift. We moved north from Red Deer just over eleven years ago, and the first concert we attended in Leduc was a great performance from one of my favourites, John Wort Hannam. I was so excited to be near the city and able to attend concerts whenever I…

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