Brand new year, brand new bands. I caught a couple of them at the Slice, Jan 4.
 Up first was a hot new country trio called Blacksmith featuring Keenan and Shael Pezderic’s dad on bass and vocals. They played a tight, up beat set of country covers and a lot of originals. They reminded me a lot of a trimmed down Prairie Oyster, with their retro Texas honky tonk sound that had much of the room clapping along.

They played several mid-tempo country style originals and added a few choice covers like Van Morrison’s “Brown Eyed Girl.” Their vocal harmonies shone on a pretty version of Trooper’s “Janine.”

 John Greenshields also introduced his new band, Johnny G and the Spots including drummer Keenan Pezderic, Nicholas Donald Hay on guitar and Steve Harris on bass. They played ’70s style southern rock similar to the Sheepdogs.

Their music is very much country influenced psychedelic blues rock similar to his other band Big Jim and the Twins, but more focused on the songs than psychedelic jams. They sounded like a blend of Chris Colepaugh mixed with the Band.

 With 12 gigs to choose from to rock in the new year on New Year’s Eve, it meant for some tough choices. I was driving a carload of friends around to a couple of interesting ones and opted for gigs featuring bands I had’t heard before or gigs with no cover charges, as while I usually get in for free being media, my friends don’t have much money.

The first one I hit was at Bully’s Entertainment Centre, where Calgary rock blues band Pete Fischer and the Hurricanes were holding court for a good sized crowd of people, most of whom were sitting, talking amongst themselves, had eyes glued to VLT and even a few dancing.

  The band played an array of popular classic rock and country covers.
 The band members took turns singing lead on a variety of songs  and harmony vocal lines on others including classic rock like “Evil Ways,”  “Cocaine” and Blondie’s “Tide Is High” or upbeat blues based foot stompers like “Flip, Flop and Fly” and a hot version of “Shake, Rattle and Roll.”

 The highlight was Pete Fischer, who not only  sang lead on several  songs but also played sweet saxophone solos on others and upbeat piano on other songs.

 The next stop was Scores, where 2 Cubic Feet was playing modern rock to a good sized, chattering crowd.
 I only caught the end of a decent cover of Our Lady Peace’s “Starseed.”

 Damon Van Ginneken has been helping Lethbridge youth drop their own beats for about a year and a half with his program “Drop’n’ Beats.”

“Basically it’s a drop in program for youth age 12-19,” Van Ginneken described adding it is designed for youth who are interested in songwriting and music rather than sports.
“It’s totally free of charge,” he continued.

Drop’n’ Beats alternates between the Boys and Girls Club on the second and fourth Thursday of every month and the Medicine Tree (Sik-ooh-kotoki) Friendship Centre on the first and third Thursday of every month.

 He brings his portable studio to the two locations and works with youth to professionally record their songs. He will soon be expanding to the R.I. Baker Middle School in Coaldale.

“It takes about a half hour to set everything up then we’re good to go,” he said adding they can complete a song in a day and he gets lots of youth who return regularly.

While he comes from a hip hop background, he noted the youth involved are interested in a variety of genres of music.
“The whole idea is to promote youth empowerment through creative expression,” Van Ginneken continued adding he was a touring musician with hip hop crew Red Nation before quitting the business to become a youth worker and program director. In addition to teaching youth about the engineering and recording process, he also offers music mentorship and will also help them get performing experience by arranging opening gigs with touring musicians for his protégés.

He was involved in a similar program called Prairie Roots run by an organization called Common Weal when he was a youth in Regina and decided to pay it forward in Lethbridge beginning June 2011.
“I was just talking over the idea with my  supervisor (at McMan Community Services) I never expected to get sponsorship for it,” he said adding he receives financial support from the provincial government as well as the United Way and The Community Foundation of Southern Alberta.

While the big show of the week is  Buck Cherry with One Bad Son and Heaven’s Basement, Jan. 10 at Average Joes, there are several  excellent gigs happening.

HBO3 ( Paul Holden, Brad Brouwer and James Oldenburg) host the first jazz jam of the year at the Slice, Jan. 12. James Oldenburg also plays the Mocha Cabana, Jan. 11 and 12.

 And if you missed the Necessities’ packed New Year’s Eve show at the Owl Acoustic Lounge, they are taking one more crack at the cat, Jan. 12 at the Slice.
 If you like blues music, Zojo Black, featuring Greg Gomola, will be playing the Slice, Jan. 11. Along the same lines, not to mention some of the same band members, Paul Kype and Texas Flood will be playing the blues at the Slice, Jan. 10.

 It is also a pretty good week for country music as up and coming Calgary based country singer Shannon Smith performs at Casino Lethbridge this weekend.

 On the other hand, Hurtin’,  a local country band who are gaining more popularity with each gig, will be playing the Owl Acoustic Lounge, Jan. 12. The Owl acoustic Lounge features Ontario born, Winnipeg based singer-songwriter Jenny Berkel, Jan. 11 as well.
And don’t forget open mics. As always, there are a lot of them, with the Lethbridge Folk Club on Friday, Jimmy’s open jam on Friday and a lot more. The Trianon open mics are back after Christmas on Thursday, as are  the Tuesday open jams at the Slice and Bo Diddly’s.