You  can’t say Jamie Perry, aka Bocephus lacks a sense of humour or ambition.
“You were one of the few people who were there last time,” he laughed to begin the interview.

The free-spirited, Vancouver based Perry, will be returning to Lethbridge to play the Slice on Saturday, Jan. 19.

He is in the middle of another tour with a relatively newer band which includes Charlie Hase on pedal steel guitar, Paul Townsend on drums, Wynston Minckler on bass and vocalist/ percussionist Skye Wallace.

 He is also working on a new double album “Love Songs to Nina Simone,” which he expects will be out in April.

It will be the follow-up his has critically acclaimed 2011 CD “Willie Dixon God Damn!”

“ We began it around the same time we were finishing “Willie Dixon God Damn!  and I enjoyed working with Chon (the producer) so I wanted to keep doing stuff with him, but I didn’t have any new songs written,” he said adding he went back to the Nina Simone records he was listening to and decided to rework songs she either covered, sang or wrote plus several instrumentals.

Lethbridge country band Hurtin’ prepared for this coming week’s gigs at Casino Lethbridge with a couple of hot sets at the Owl Acoustic Lounge, Jan. 12.

 While apparently it was very busy before, things had died off a little by the time I arrived in time to hear their last set of the night, which began with an excellent version of “Michael Pagliaro’s “What The Hell I Got.”

Taylor Ackeman added extra acousitc guitar while Ryan Dyck played sorrowful steel guitar to fill out the sound provided by lead singer/guitarist Shael Pezderic, his brother Keenan on drums and their dad Marlin on bass.

 The followed that up with Dwight Yoakam’s “Guitars and Cadillacs” and some Waylon Jennings as well.

The Necessities were back to play a laid back set of thought provoking acoustic based folk/ rock music at the Slice, Jan.12. The room was near capacity right from the beginning of the show.

 The Necessities played superb versions of their original music. They were very tight considering they hadn’t played together for about a year before this past couple of weeks.

 But a trimmed down Cosmic Charley almost stole the show with an incendiary  set of funk flavoured fun rock.

 The trimmed down trio played an energetic  set of original material, inlcuding much  of it from their CD and added in a couple new songs as well.

As usual the intricate bass lines were the highlight of the show. And the groove was aunstoppable. I was surprised nomody was dancing.

 “Something In My Eye,” was one of my highlights as was a solid cover of Weezer’s “Sweater” song.

They left the rambunctious crowd calling for more, but they made way for the Necessities, who slowed down things a lot, leaving the crowd lost in their groove.

It is always fun to hear Zojo Black.
 The local blues/rock band returned to the Slice, Jan. 11 to play an array of energetic covers and originals.

 Frontman Greg Gomola sang most of the songs, though bassist Paul Kype sang some Stevie Ray Vaughan’s “Pride and joy.” as Braw Brouwer kept the time on drums.

 Evan Eushenko, playing baritone guitar and harp also sang Michael Rault’s “Sidewinder” as Texas Flood Keyboardist Earl McAuley added excellent piano and organ solos.

While it is always enjoyable to hear them singing classics like Deep Purple’s “Hush” and Jethro Tull’s “Locomotive Breath (which  Gomola dedicated to Tyler Freed, I always enjoy their originals more.

 Gomola's song about  Shaela Miller, “Modern  Day Marilyn Monroe” was a highlight as was the laid back reggae feel of “Keep it Real.”