As always, the Windy City Opry at the Slice had great music. The May 11 edition didn’t have as great a turnout as usual, but there was still plenty of excellent music. While I missed Winnipeg musician Dave Quanbury, I caught most of Edmonton singer/songwriter John Guliak’s set, arriving just as he invited Ryan “Skinny” Dyck on stage to add some beautifully spontaneous pedal steel guitar to a set featuring plenty of keyboards and accordion from Jason Kodie and solid bass from Tomas Muireb backed by drummer Marek Tyler.

 Guliak told stories and strummed a little acoustic guitar, playing a set mostly of music from his three CDs. But he was winding down his set with a couple of covers including a Richard Thompson song.
 Windy City Opry organizer Shaela Miller joined Guliak on stage to sing some spontaneous harmonies.

 I left after an excellent version of his original song  “Tryptych” as I didn’t want to miss Kimberley MacGregor and Elliott Thomas at the Owl Acoustic Lounge.