Prince Edward Island raised/ Austin Texas based Whitney Rose  returned to the Geomatic Attic to sing some outlaw/’70s style country for an intimate audience, Thursday, April 11.

 I missed Shaela Miller’s opening set but was just in time for Whitney Rose and her tight band who played  an enjoyable set of mid-tempo covers and originals. They began with a pretty version of Don William’s“Tulsa Time,” then drifted into one of her own songs “Arizona,” as she noted she wasn’t in the mood for much talking and just  wanted to play music. That was all right by the enthusiastic crowd who cheered every song and most of the precise guitar solos. Her voice reminded me of Margo Price mixed with Lee Ann Womack and LeAnn Rimes.
 She noted they had been touring up the West coast and into Lethbridge en route to Calgary, and promised to play some new songs as well as a few older songs.

 Some of the original highlights were “I Don’t Want Half, (I Just Want out)” and “You Don’t Scare Me” from her most recent CD Rule 62 which set the theme of the evening as heartbreak was on Rose’s mind, who sang with her  eyes shut, occasionally  cracking a smile and moving to dance to her lead guitarist Josh Owen’s solos.

“One thing you don’t know about Josh, is that he sings like an angel,” as  she stepped back to let him sing Gram Parsons’ “Return of the Grievous Angel.” She harmonized beautifully with him.

 A couple of other highlights  were  the slower “My Boots” from her 2017 CD “South Texas Suite ” and more honky tonk rocking country of “The Devil Borrowed my Boots” from 2015’s “Heartbreaker of the Year.”

They also played some sweet covers of Little Feat’s “Willin’” and an exceptional version of Concrete Blonde’s ’90s hit “Joey,” which they turned into a  country song.

 She introduced a couple of originals “ You’re Going to Get Lonely,”  about “another asshole” and another, more up tempo number in the same vein, both of which drew applause from the audience and caused Rose to crack a smile.
“It’s always difficult to play new songs,” she observed.

 CKUA Radio personality Matt Masters showed his substantial musical chops for the April edition of the Windy City Opry, Wednesday, April 10, which drew a good sized mid week crowd.

As usual on a Wednesday, I arrived too late for most of the show of up beat honky tonk country from Masters and Emily Triggs, who opened the show with Tyler Allen.

But I was in time for an excellent version of Ray Wylie Hubbard’s “ Snake Farm,” which Masters and his lead guitarist Craig McCallum made their own.

 They also tackled Ridley Bent’s “Suicidewinder,” with Master noting they’d never played the song together before.

 They sounded like they had been playing it together for years.
 Host Shaela Miller got up and said she had been friends with Masters since meeting him while working at the Tongue N’ Groove, “when I 13, maybe a little older than that.”

Calgary based alternative rock/indie rock band Yvette played a solid set of music at the Slice, for about 25 people, Saturday, April 6.
 They played a strong set of keyboard powered original music drawing a lot of inspiration from mid—70s soft rock and jazz.

Thanks to the laid back keyboards, they had a strong Steely Dan and  Supertramp feel, plus  a whole lot of smooth jazz, but with a whole lot of loud bass.

 They have released a new self titled  EP and played the single, which featured a cool walking bass line.

As usually things got a little funky with Adequate at the Owl Acoustic Lounge, Saturday, April 6, which was packed, as expected.

 They were playing some original funk and R and B  as I arrived with Keenan Pezderic singing in his best falsetto from behind the drums, guitarist Josh Thorlakson was laying it down on lead guitar while Scott Mezei was doing triple duty on bass, background vocals, keyboards and was even incorporating a vocoder into the music.

Their set included the usual suspects — vintage R and B and funk popular standards and even Steve Miller Band’s “ The Joker.” As a bonus they decided to funk up Quad City DJ’s  “Space Jam” theme.