Jake Ian and the Haymakers put on a  very cool show of country for a smaller audience at the Slice, May 19.

I arrived in the middle of an entertaining set by opening act Mike Dunn, who also stepped in as lead guitarist for Jake Ian.
 He played an entertaining  opening solo acoustic set.

The Edmonton based musician joked, in his big , raspy, gravelly voice, that he was from Portage La Prairie “Where grass is brown and the girs are hairy,” and cracked himself up before relating a story fellow Winnipeg musicians  Romi Mayes and Jay Nowicki told him.

 Dunn, who used to play with the “Give Em’ Hell Boys,”  stood on his own as a solo performer.

 He plugged in and turned up his Telecaster when Jake Ian and the Haymakers took the stage for some upbeat roots/ country music backed by drummer Don williams, sitting on a box and pounding out the beats as  Ian sand songs os stripper poles and broken hearts while blowing plenty of tasteful harmonica solos. They sounded like a more stripped down Wilco.