The fifth edition of the Highway 3 Roots Revue ended this year's tour in Lethbridge at the Slice, Dec. 9, by starting exactly at 8 p.m.
An early show is an anomaly at the Slice or most places in Lethbridge, but the place was packed with a very close to being a sold out crowd, who were listening intently to each songwriter’s songs and stories.
John Wort Hannam began their second set with his “hit” “Church of the Long Grass,” which had a few people in the audience singing along with Leeroy Stagger and Dave McCann who were singing back up vocals. Stagger added a harmonica solo— one of several he sprinkled through the set.
McCann followed that up with a catchy new song called “Headlights,” which encouraged Stagger to play a new song of his own.
Hannam noted the Grammy Award nominations were announced, joking “We didn’t get any.
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He noted a new compilation of Guy Clark songs was nominated in the best roots CD category, so he played a Guy Clark song “Baby Took a Limo to Memphis,” which had McCann, Stagger and most of the audience singing along.
Stagger noted he was proud to have recorded a CD with John Wort Hannam and that Hannam recorded one “Radiant Land” of his songs for it. It is also the title track to Stagger’s latest Cd so he played it while Hannam sang one of the verses. 
Hannam played “Nothing at All,” one of the highlights form his CD “Brambles and Thorns,” which he said he wrote about his grandmother for his grandfather.
McCann followed by talking about Evel Knievel who was born in Butte, Montana and playing one of his songs about “Butte.”
Stagger wound down the show with “the last show of the year” and had most of the room singing along with a very beautiful version of “Beautiful House.”
Leeroy Stagger, Dave McCann and John Wort Hannam were called back for an encore and ended this year's tour in fine form by playing a great version of Robert Earle Keene’s “Merry Christmas from the Family” to end the show and the tour. Hannam had a great line — “Christmas carols usually give me a rash, but we all found one we like.”
