A couple budding Canadian country flavoured bands played Lethbridge, Oct. 2.
 First of all, Halifax born Ridley Bent twanged the roof off a sold out Henotic. The charismatic Kelowna based songwriter is on the cusp of breaking into the big time. His band played crisply, tightly and without fail and Bent has an innate charisma which makes it impossible to take your eyes off him. He combined old school Waylon Jennings style country with some sizzling pedal steel guitar playing and the odd contemporary hip hop influence added carefully into songs like my favourite Ridley Bent song “Suicidewinder” as well as a wicked sense of humour like on “She’s Still Living With her Ex.”

He also played “Suicidewinder” at the Slice after he and his band stopped by to jam with their old friends, Kent McAlister and the Iron Choir.
Kent McAlister had a fantastic show at the Slice for approximately 40 people with a more laid back, blues/ folky Wilcoesque feel than Bent’s more contemporary country sound, but there was a lot of gripping songwriting and some wicked Weissenborn slide playing, not to mention the title track of his third CD “How I’ll Remain” which featured some impressive time tempo changes. Rob Ursel and the Burning Sensations aka Tyler Bird and Brad Brouwer opened the show with a solid set of folk flavoured country. Partially because they were playing in Lethbridge and partially because it’s on the CKXU playlist, I’ve been listening non-stop to my new favourite song, McAlister’s “Crossing Arm Blues.” I’m just sorry I missed the live version which ended the first set.

— By Richard Amery, L.A Beat Editor