Romi Mayes and Jay Nowicki played a solid set of blues/ rock at the Slice, Aug. 26.

 They started with one of my favourite songs from Mayes’ Cd “Sweet Something Steady, “The Other Dame,” then slowed things down a little.

 Their set ranged between uptempo foot-stompers, slower blues numbers and even some country in “Heavy Heart,” from her latest CD “Lucky Tonight.”

They played music from all of Mayes’ CDs including a request from  the audience to play “Styx and BTO” from her debut CD.

 Jay Nowicki showed his distinctive guitar playing style throughout, playing Hound Dod Taylor style dirty, tortured riffs on his battered Telecaster
Mayes dominated the stage as always, looking a little like Joan Jett, and definitely sounding like Jett belting out the blues.

 There were a lot of highlights from the new CD including a slightly slower version of “Make You Love Me.”

 As always her more uptempo material was among my favourites, including an excellent version of “Can’t Get You Off (My Mind),” which was an extremely apt description of the impact she left on the good sized crowd.