Calgary based folk/ rock band Locomotive Ghost played Lethbridge for their third time,Feb. 2 for an enthusiastic audience.

 “This has gone way better than we expected considering most of you have never heard of us before,” observed frontman Mike Buckley early in the band’s set. They were  right. They combined elements of the Band’s ’70s style roots rock blended with the Bare Naked Ladies with just a touch of Matchbox 20 (because of Buckley’s voice) but with liberal doses of funk fueled bass. The groove was unstoppable and they added some keyboards to their varied musical palette.

 Buckley sang appealing melodies and they even added some blues to several tracks including my favourite “Smoke These Blues Out,” from their first CD.
 They also introduced new music from their upcoming seasons  EPs — a set of records to be released in conjunction with each season.
“Blue Eyes of Summer” was a highlight from their upcoming summer CD.

 They ended their  set by bringing Shael and Keenan Pezderic from opening act Hurtin’  up on stage to play guitar and keyboards respectively. They had the audience singing along with Old Crow Medicine Show/ Bob Dylan’s “Wagon Wheel,” and  then singing along with a  decent version of Neil Young’s “Cortez the Killer” during which  Buckley broke a string, but continued to sing while retuning his guitar.