Little Miss Higgins sings with soul with the F-Holes

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 Little Miss Higgins and the F-Holes aka the Winnipeg Five are a match made in Heaven as they showed a capacity crowd at the Geomatic Attic, Sept. 23. Jolene Higgins, aka Little Miss Higgins was her usual charming and talented self, who sang like an angel and cracked small jokes.

Little Miss Higgins and the Winnipeg 5. Photo by Richard Amery
  But the guys sang pretty well as well as they sang the first song beautifully a cappella first song, ‘Early Morning Thief’ from their new CD ‘Bison Ranch Recording Sessions.’


 The followed that up by picking up their instruments and tearing into the whimsical ‘Chateau Poulet’ about a chicken coop.

Rural themes and the new CD were the order of the day for the group. Little Miss Higgins sang and played songs from throughout her career including a nice version of ‘Velvet Barley Beds’ from ‘Junction City.’

She prefaced it with a story about talking to a farmer about the fact barley is anything but velvety soft.


 Trumpet player Jimmie James McKee got more and more excited with each solo as he injected a touch of jazz into the proceedings especially on their hot Fats Waller cover of ‘Keep a Song In your Soul.’

The band blended stand up bass with lots of banjo, some steel guitar, sweet guitar solos and subtle horns throughout which provided  the bedrock for the music.


Higgins showed her jazz roots by playing a couple of excellent and sassy Memphis Minnie covers of ‘Killer Diller’ and another one. Her song ‘Wash These Blues Away’ was  a highlight which she marked by whistling a solo.


There were a lot of highlights, most of them from their new CD. ‘The Barns You Used to Dance In’ was a particularly touching number she dedicated to her mom. She began her second set by letting the “ Winnipeg Five” take centre stage.

They played their cover of Tom Waits’ ‘Jockey Full of Bourbon,’ and followed it up with one of my favourites ‘Even Steven.’


They were called back for an instrumental as Higgins left stage to “fetch something very important for the next song.”

Little Miss Higgins auctions off a vintage chess set and book. Photo by Richard Amery
 As the F- Holes joked the next song should be used in a viagra commercial,” they played their instrumental ‘Up For A While’ as Higgins returned with a book on how to play chess which she bought at an antiques store.


 She auctioned it off during her new song ‘I Went to an Auction’ and sold it for $50 to a man in the front row who was bidding against himself.

She followed that up by playing “the hit” off her last album and giggled “You can write all of these deep songs with beautiful lyrics and guitar playing and everyone wants to hear the song I wrote about panties,” and played one of my favourites ‘Bargain Store Panties.’
 She wound down her show with an upbeat version of ‘Dirty Ol’ Tractor,’ but was called back for an encore.

— by Richard Amery, L.A. Beat Editor
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 02 October 2013 16:38 )