Fred Eaglesmith alum Roger Marin returned to the Slice, April 22 to play for a much deserved enthusiastic audience — finally.
Marin is a talented and charismatic songwriters, who tells great stories and is just a blast to watch, but usually plays local shows for all of five people. So it is about time he had a decent sized crowd in Lethbridge.
As a special bonus, he brought Austin based singer/ songwriter Mark Jungers for his first visit to Lethbridge.
All three (including Marin’s lead guitarist Mike Tuyps) took turns singing lead and trading solos on each others’ songs.
Jungers won everybody over pretty much immediately with his Bob Dylan meets Fred Eaglesmith voice. His lyrics were gritty, a little dark and raw, telling stories of farmers, religion, progress and marriage. He started with “Show Me A Sign,” the first track off his latest CD “More Like a Good Dog Than a Bad Cat.”
Marin and Tuyp listened intently then improvised tasteful solos.
Marin song the title track of his latest CD “Silvertown,” as Jungers returned the favour by adding a mournful harmonica solo.
I loved Jungers’ next contribution “Price Of Progress” about farmers losing their land to a hydro-electric dam, which ended with the farmer “plugging that dam with dynamite.” Brilliant.
Marin played a variety of songs from throughout his career, but focusing on his latest CD. “Long Way Down was a highlight,” as was crowd favourite “Rosie” and “Hate Yourself.”
His bluegrass song “City Girl” was great as Tuyp added bluegrassy style vocal harmonies .
They ended their set with a couple excellent songs — Jungers’ “Silos and Smokestacks,” and Marin ended by playing a request from one of the audience members — “Busted Hearts and Broken Songs.”
I wanted to hear more from them, but it was basically Rob Ursel’s show.
He opened the show with a quick set backed by one of Lethbridge’s hottest rhythm sections— drummer Brad Brouwer and stand -up bassist Paul Holden. He was just as brilliant, especially during his second, longer set I don’t think I’ve heard him play with a rhythm section as he usually performs alone, but they added to his laid back yet upbeat almost jazzy feel.
One of my favourites was about falling in love with a female suicide bomber. He invited all of the girls in the audience 
up on stage to sing back up on another song.
The last set of the night turned into a massive jam session with Jungers, Marin and Tuyp backed by Brouwer and Holden, with Ursel adding extra guitar and songs.
They ran through Marin’s version of Fred Eaglesmith’s “49 Tonnes” and my favourite “Blondie and Dagwood.” They ended with a mind blowing country version of Canaidan punk veterans, the Forgotten Rebels’ “Surfing on Heroin.”
