Barney Bentall and the Cariboo Express delivered one of the most beautiful musical experience of the year at Southminster United Church, Thursday, Nov. 7. As a bonus t
he Geomatic Attic event raised at least $15,000 for Youth One, with more to be counted as Mike Spencer they passed a couple of natty hats around for extra donations from close to 400 people in attendance.
As he has over the past 14 years, Bentall rounded up an all star line up of Canadian roots and country talent for the show, including Leeroy Stagger for just the Lethbridge show, which kicked off this year‘s tour.’ They brought a lot of joy and love to the Southminster Church in an extensive show that ended around 11 p.m.
Most of the donations came from local businesses who sponsored individual shows, so Bentall and co-host and organizer Matt Masters had a riot cracking jokes at each other’s expense and cracking each other up in the process while mentioning the sponsors to introduce each song.
Each musician got to shine on their own song, sometimes including the other guests and sometimes with just the host band The Gold Rush All Star Band. For the most part, the other key musicians took a seat off stage to watch the others performing.
Barney Bentall was in a nostalgic mood, concentrating on his hits and deep cuts from the ’90s, though he began the show with “ The Miner,” from his latest Cd “the Drifter and the Preacher, which included everyone. But for the most part, Bentall concentrated on music from his 1995 album Gin Palace with a couple highlights including “Atikokan Annie” and “Oh Shelly,” which he noted was inspired by Sheldon Kennedy after partying with the Detroit Red Wings all night before a big game against the Flames.
His son, Dustin, who looks a lot like a younger Barney Bentall , focused on brand new material from a brand new EP he released just a week ago. including “The Roses” and “Angels and Devils.” H He added twanging Telecaster to most of the songs.
Leeroy Stagger quipped, “How am I going to follow that,” after a long, extended heartfelt jam on Bentall’s “Atikokan Annie,” which Bentall noted he wrote with Bruce Cockburn, but Stagger did himself proud on “Searchlight” and included everybody on it as well on his big hit “I Want It All, which also included everybody singing a line or two.”
A constant throughout the show was the flying feet and fast fingers of tap dancing fiddle player Stephanie Cadman, who added fiddle to pretty much everyone’s songs. But she shone on a hot version of “The Devil Went Down To Georgia,” which also showed off her tap dancing prowess as she changed the words to reflect a female devil.
Wendy Bird sang background for her songs which sounded like mid ’90s Shania Twain and incorporated most of the musicians.
She got everyone to sing on the Blue Shadows’ “Deliver Me.”
The musicians opened the second set singing an unplugged a-cappella song, with everyone singing a line or two before the band kicked in.
They all showed their line dancing and dance moves as Bentall sang “ Drip Drop” in the second set.
Ridley Bent sang a few songs and added extra guitar and background vocals to most songs, but his highlight, was an extensive jam on the Mexicali tinged “Suicidewinder, which wound down the set.
the rap/country/ slam poet hybrid brought Bentall and Masters back to the stage to sing a verse, as Bent growled the chorus “ I’m Johnny Cash when I’m drinking and the Clash when I’m thinking.”
They ended on a quieter note, before being called to play an encore of Barney Bentall’s big hit “ Something To Live For,” winding down a beautiful show full of magical musical moments.
