Monday night shows can be challenging, but the Owl Acoustic Lounge pepped up their usual open mic with  a couple of excellent acts, Jan 30 — the Kayla Luky Band and Rotary Park, who will be back at the Owl Acoustic Lounge, Feb. 10.

I hadn’t seen Grand View, Manitoba country musician Kayla Luky for a while , so I was pleased to arrive in the middle of  a hot set of country music from Luky and her talented band including bassist Sean Burns, drummer Daniel John David, guitarist Tony Dylan, who kept making Luky giggle on stage and pedal steel player Matthew Filopoulos.

 They played several heartfelt Luky penned, twangy originals which sounded like a mix of Margo Price and Kasey Chambers.

 Their covers  for the most part, focused on drinking songs including “Something About a Beer” by Dale Watson and George Jones/ Willie Nelson’s “ Gotta Get Drunk.” and Merle Haggard’s “ Mixed Up Mess of a Heart.”
Her cover of Tammy Wynette’s “Your Girl’s Gonna Go Bad,” was one of several Margo Price sounding songs.

Rotary Park are always a pleasure to see and always prove they are more than just a bluegrass band Alex Ginella (vocals/guitar/fiddle/harmonica); Nicki McRae - (mandolin/vocals); Liam Testa - (vocals/guitar); Matt Coldwell (vocals/double bass) and vocalist/ banjo player Tanner Day switched instruments through the set as often as they switched into  a cornucopia of different genres.

They played traditional bluegrass then segued into ’50s doo wop which showed off their soulful vocal harmonies. They even turned Pink Floyd’s “Time” into a spooky bluegrass song, adding layers of multi-instrumental sound. “Time” segued into a peppy Celtic, fiddle powered jig. Throughout they sang gorgeous vocal harmonies gathered around one microphone set centre stage.

Everybody got to solo, showing off their musical chops on pretty much every song.

A Django Reinhardt cover gave Alex Ginella to show off his exceptional jazz chops.