While most of the Lethbridge music community heads west to the Fort Macleod Fish and Game Park for the South Country Fair every summer, for one performer this year will be a homecoming.
 Keri McTighe, nee Latimer of popular folk / old time music quartet Nathan grew up in Lethbridge.

The Winnipeg folk/ roots quartet Nathan are excited to return home to Lethbridge and to play the South Country Fair at the Fort Macleod Fish and Games park throughout the weekend, July 19-21 for the first time since about 2001.

 They have released three critically acclaimed albums and an EP. They are currently making new music.
Latimer grew up in Lethbridge as a teenager and went to the Alberta College of Art in Calgary before moving to Winnipeg, where she formed Nathan with her husband and bassist Devin Latimer and Shelley Marshall on accordion, banjo and guitar, Damon Mitchell on drums.
“ Her husband is in the band now too,” she said.
“ Our kids play together, so that’s when we practice, she said.

 Nathan isn’t touring as much as they used to as Keri is concentrating on raising her kids aged five and seven. Shelley and her husband also have a child as does drummer Damon Mitchell, who has an eight month old baby.

 She has fond memories of the last  South Country Fair they played.
“I remember it being a really fun party. We enjoyed it so much. We made some really good friends. We met the Brothers Cosmoline. We went on tour with them which was good fun and John Switzer from the band produced our Jimson Weed  album,” she related.
“ So when we return we have new songs and new children,” she said.
Nathan plays throughout the weekend.

Yukon based singer songwriter Sarah MacDougall has never played the fair before, but has heard many good things about it.

“Every time I  talk to musicians about it, they get really excited about it,” said MacDougall from the Winnipeg Folk Fest.
“I’ve been spending about five weeks this summer doing festivals. I just like that there are  a lot of people coming together because of music,” she said adding she also likes participating in workshops as well.

 At the South Country Fair, she will be playing a set on the south stage at 5 p.m., on Saturday, July 20 with guitarist Bob Hamilton, and will be part of a workshop Sunday morning with Minor Empire and Ben Caplan.

“I like workshops. I like meeting other musicians and songwriters,” she said.
 She will also be playing the South Country Fair’s Outreach program, during which musicians will be performing free shows in the community of Fort Macleod.

“We’re calling it the South Country Fair comes up the hill,” described artistic director Jana MacKenzie, who has been booking the south stage for the past two years and was booking the east stage before that. Maureen Chambers and daughter Gillian and son Ryland Moranz will also be playing the outreach shows.

 MacKenzie said the fair site has fared well after the floods earlier this month.
“It was definitely pretty hard hit. We had to retrieve a bunch of picnic tables which were in the trees and we’re still short, so people will have to improvise. We’ve told the people in Medicine Hat if they get any of the picnic tables which floated downstream, to bring them and they’ll get in free,” MacKenzie joked.

“They also lost a few campsites due to flood waters, so people are going to have to be in close quarters.
“And the mosquitos are going to be awful. That’s a guarantee,” she said.
“ But we’ve survived mosquitos before. So bring bug spray because you are going to get bitten,” she continued.

“There’s still a little bit of water, but the show will go on,” she said.
 She is excited about this year’s line up, which features a lot of familiar face who have performed at the fair and all over Lethbridge before as well as lots of newcomers.

“ I’m super pumped about Petunia and the Vipers on Friday and  Harpoonist and the Axe Murderer. They have an amazing sound that comes out of them. It seems like there should be a lot more people in the band,” she enthused.
The innovative Vancouver based blues/ rock duo the Harpoonist and the Axe Murderer make their South Country Fair debut this year.

 “Axe Murderer” Matthew Rogers plays guitar or murdering this axe and playing percussion and drums  with foot pedals. Vocalist/ harp player, Harpoonist Shawn Hall also plays rhythm on a variety of foot pedals. “ All of our friends will be at the Fair this year,” Rogers observed.
“ So we’re excited about hanging out with them,” he continued.
 “ We just want to make as much noise as two people can,” he said.

Winnipeg folk /bluegrass trio Sweet Alibi are excited about their first South Country Fair performance.
“It will be our first time at the Fair. It’s going to be a blast. A lot of the people we know have played it. And we’ve heard so many good things about it,” said vocalist/ guitarist/ harmonica player Jessica Rae Ayre.

 MacKenzie is also excited about  Winnipeg songwriter J.P Hoe, who played Lethbridge last year as well as Mexican born musician Quique Escamilla, who opened for  Danny Michel the last time he played Lethbridge. He plays an outstanding Saturday night  on the South Stage which also features Ben Caplan and JP Hoe before he takes the stage at 10:10 p.m.  Captain Tractor will follow and for something completely different, Edmonton based drum powered behemoth Shout Out Out Out Out who close things off just past midnight.

 Other highlights will be Winnipeg country/folk songwriter Corin Raymond who funded his last CD “Paper Nickles” with Canadian Tire money people donated to him. He plays the east stage on Saturday afternoon.
 She is also excited  to welcome new South Country Fair “Mayor” Mark Sadlier Brown who plays the Mayoral Address workshop on Saturday with Linda McRae and Luke Thomson as well as at the volunteer appreciation party.
 CR Avery returns to the fair this year. He has played Lethbridge a lot and was a highlight of last year’s fair. This year he brings a completely different, more rocking show to close off the south stage on Friday night.
“This year it will be a more raucous show,” MacKenzie promised.
“ I’ve been going to the fair since I was 15. So it’s been 19 years. Basically even after the flood, it’s been a  wonderful community. It is a beautiful thing. There are already warm fuzzies in the air,” MacKenzie enthused.
 The fair opens  Friday, July 19  at 6 p.m. with Maureen and Friends performing. There will be  music, poetry and family fun with Ballyhoo Entertainment, who will provide stilt walkers and fire spinners and circus like entertainment. Admission for the weekend is $120 at the gate.       

A version of this story appears in the July 17, 2013 edition of the Lethbridge Sun Times