Fred Eaglesmith always knows how to entertain sold out crowds. His July 17 show at the Slice was no
exception.
He demands respect — literally, You don’t dare talk at at Fred Eaglesmith show or he’ll call you out as he did with a group of girls chattering ironically during his speech about people talking during a performance.
But, dressed in top hat, steam-punk welding glasses and a natty silver suit, played his usual solid set of songs from throughout his career and introduced some excellent new songs.
A highlight was his gospel tinged number “I Pray Now,” from his “Tinderbox” CD from a few years ago as was “Johnny Cash,” from his most recent CD “6 Volts.”
A spirited version of one of his best known songs “49 Tons” came early in the set.
Eaglesmith said he wasn’t going to talk much because he was losing his voice, but talked quite a bit anyway, cracking jokes, telling off talkers and introducing new songs.
“Nobody Gets Everything” was a highlight of these as he joked “It will be on the next one which should be out around 2020. It’s taking a while to get this one done.”
The CD
is actually in the final mastering stages and should be out next year.
Another really good new song “You Can’t Tell The kids Not to Dance,” showed the more rock and roll direction Eaglesmith and his band, guitarist Matty Simpson, stand up bassist Justine Fischer, multi-instrumentalist Tif Ginn and long time drummer Kori Heppner are taking.
He played this one after doing something unique — holding a pie auction to raise money for flood relief in High River. It is a recent attraction to his show, which has raised close to $17,000 on his current tour. This pie went for $200. He made a pretty excellent auctioneer as drummer Kori Heppner displayed the pie while the rest of the band stepped into the audience watching for bidders.
His other big train song “Freight Train,” came in the second half of the set as he noted country star Allan Jackson recorded and named his album and ensuing tour after it. It was one of several songs Tif Ginn played accordion on.
An older song “Wilder Than Her,” was a highlight of the second part of the show which featured Matty Simpson on organ, as was “Summerlea” about “being in a dysfunctional relationship and liking it” but the song told the story of being married to a traveling rodeo cowboy.
Eaglesmith and his band live pretty much like that. He noted they played 266 shows last year and would probably play more than that this year.
Another oldie but goodie “Georgia Overdrive,” was well suited to his more rock and roll sound. He also brought back a really old song “Rough Edges.”
He played several songs from his most recent CD “6 Volts” including the title track and ended the show with “Stars,” an autobiographical song about his career so far. He returned to play a couple of solo acoustic songs on his own before calling it a night.
