European audiences love Americana and traditional music.

 It is a pleasant surprise for Lisa MacIsaac and Brenley MacEachern, of Juno nominated roots duo Madison Violet, who are in the middle of  their sixth tour of Europe.They will be returning to the Slice, Nov. 25.

“It’s been amazing so far. We had one day off and we had to spend seven hours driving, ” said MacIsaac from a stop in Austria.

“Most of the shows have been sold out. So it is good to see the growth after six tours,” she continued, crediting the power of social media for their popularity.

“Proportionally there isn’t a lot of interest in bluegrass and traditional music, but there are 80 million people in a country which isn’t  even as big as Ontario. So a group of the people of them will find out where people playing in the genre they are interested in. They’ll find out where they are playing and they‘ll all get together,” she continued.

“And we’ll see the same faces at seven of 12 different shows. So it is very neat to see that.
 The group, touring as a trio, recently filmed a DVD in Cologne.

“A lot of people came because they wanted to be part of that Madison Violet experience” MacEachern added, noting the audiences are very generous and helpful.

 “ We left with two huge bags of gifts, like chocolates socks and t-shirts. Brenley tweeted she lost her favourite pair of socks while doing laundry, so they brought us some,” MacIsaac recalled.

Winnipeg based bluegrass band the Magnificent 7s are looking forward to supporting their brand new record, “All Kinds of Mean,” the long awaited follow-up to 2009’s “Dirty Roads” CD when they come to Lethbridge on their latest tour, Nov. 25 at the Owl Acoustic Lounge.

“The actual Cd release party is Dec. 15 in Winnipeg at the West End Cultural Centre, so we‘re making our fans in Winnipeg wait or it,” laughed guitarist/ vocalist Matt Magura.
“It is definitely the product of the last few years of songwriting and playing together,” he said.

He is very pleased with the finished product, noting the band basically spent two weeks recording it live off the floor at Winnipeg’s Private Ear Studios.

“We recorded it as a band live off the floor with lots of microphones. We recorded it more or less live, so if something went wrong, we’d have to do the song all over again,” he said.

“I’m looking forward to getting feedback from the fans about it,” he continued.

Canadian Celtic -punk legends The Mahones  like to strike while the iron is  hot. It has been sizzling  for the past 20 years, especially  the past year, during which they have been all over the world touring in support of their latest album “Black Irish,” but frontman Finny McConnell still gets excited when he gets to play with some of his inspirations.

McConnell still gets  excited when talking about his idols and inspirations event though his band has influenced more than their share of Celtic punks,  even spawning a tribute CD “Whiskey Devils— A Tribute  to the Mahones,” a compilation  bands from all over the world playing their favourite Mahones songs in a plethora of different styles.

They recently completed the Shamrock-N-Roll  tour with the likes of the Dropkick Murphys, the Street Dogs and most notably , original Irish  punkers Stiff Little Fingers.
“All of the Celtic punk players were influenced by Jake Burns and Stiff Little Fingers,  and the two string riff he plays. Even  the Edge  from U2 was influenced by him,” noted Finny McConnell. He will be bringing the Mahones back to Lethbridge to play the Slice, Nov. 24 with the Unbelievers.

“ So to be able to sit back every night and watch him play was amazing.  And when you play with the Dropkick Murphys— they are punk rockers, but they are also gentlemen. They treat everyone right and you’re playing  on a nice big stage with a nice PA system  in front of nice big audiences,” he enthused.

“We had the Parkinson Sisters playing fiddle. That was one tour we didn’t want to end. Usually  near  the end of a tour, you just want to go home. But I would have liked to continue this one for three or four more weeks,” he said.
 The Mahones also did their first tour of Ireland, where McConnell’s family is from.
“We played with the UK Subs and the Undertones weren’t sure how well we’d go over there. But they said they couldn’t wait to have us back. It’s great to play with all of these original punk bands.

 The Mahones, who were born in Kingston for a St. Patrick’s Day party back in 1990, but relocated to Montreal about a year ago, not that they have been able spend much time there, spending most of the year touring.

“I spent about 15 years living in Toronto and Katie (McConnell’s wife and the Mahones’ accordion player) spent her whole life in Toronto. We needed a change. It was the same old restaurants, the same old bars and the same old theatres.  We wanted to move a  to a whole new place— new restaurants, new theatres, new bars. Now we’re living in  an Irish neighbourhood, well it’s not really an Irish neighbourhood, but there are a lot of Irish pubs. And I can just bring my acoustic guitar and play it,” he said.

Five Alarm Funk  is ready to bring the funk to Lethbridge, Nov. 23.

 They are doing great having just taken home a Western Canadian Music Award for best instrumental album for their third CD “Anything is Possible.”

“We’re breaking in a new trumpet player now, ” said saxophonist Dameian Walsh over a fading cell phone line  somewhere on the road to Jasper in the midst of another western Canadian tour.

They weren’t expecting to win a Western Canadian Award.

“It’s great to be recognized. It was a complete surprise. We were at a party at a friend’s house when we found out,” he said.
“It’s the first award that we’ve won,” he said.