There wasn’t acres of elbow room at the Lethbridge College Cave, Jan. 12 as The Lethbridge Folk Club opened the new year with a sold out show with John Wort Hannam and his band.

As usual on a Saturday, I arrived late, but caught the end of a hot set from Hannam and his band mates keyboardist/ Steve Fletcher, upright bassist Jason Valleau and drummer Jon May, who are supporting Hannam's new CD “Acres of Elbow Room.”.

 Hannam sang earnest original folk and acoustic music including “Only Love Can Save Us Now,” from the new CD.

I arrived as Fletcher was blasting out a melodica solo, making Hannam’s  music sound a little more Celtic on several songs, especially on “Goodnight Nova Scotia.”

 They ended as Hannam joked about not leaving the stage and waiting for applause before  returning for an encore, and noted he and the band would just go ahead and play the encore of “Damn Tattoo.”

They received a standing ovation for it.