Time: 9:30 p.m.
Cover: None
We all have hometown appetites. Every other person is a bundle of
longing for the simplicities of good taste once enjoyed on the farm or
in the hometown [he or she] left behind."
– American food writer Clementine Paddleford
It’s a cuisine quote, but Paddleford’s words perfectly portray Kayla
Luky. The singer-songwriter grew up in Grandview, Manitoba, a small
farming community nestled between the
Riding and Duck Mountains, but like many young folks in the area, Luky
fled to Winnipeg following high school. Setting up shop in One Great
City, the prairie girl penned, performed and produced her 2008 album
"Story of my Life" in the ‘Peg. Recorded live in one-take, the record
received very positive reviews from the Winnipeg Free Press, The Uniter,
The Manitoban and Uptown Magazine. Still, something wasn’t right, and
it wasn’t long before Luky realized the “Heart of the Continent” wasn’t
where her heart was at.
Luky’s latest album "The Time it
Takes" marks not only a homecoming for the young songstress, but a
complete countrification of her sound. Take the sentimental saddle song
"Cowboys Are Coming", the banjo-driven boot stomper "Lonesome Ranger" or
the aching, heart-breaking "My Flowers Are Empty" with its sad pedal
steel and love lost refrain “You left me in shambles, you left me in
pain, the summer dragged on and my heart didn’t change.” Metropolitan
music makers would be hard-pressed to write a hard-luck song so genuine,
but Luky’s small town setting gives it absolute authenticity. There can
be a lot of loneliness in a one-bar town, but this is no individual
effort.
In addition to Luky, "The Time it Takes" features
instrumentation from Saskatoon folk artist Zachary Lucky, Lucas Goetz of
Saskatoon’s Deep Dark Woods and Daniel Péloquin-Hopfner of Winnipeg’s
Fire & Smoke. Armed with liquor and lottery tickets from the local
Home Hardware, the four musicians, along with London, Ontario-based
singer-songwriter Sean Craib-Petkau (The Bravest Ghost), holed up in
Luky’s big, old house in Grandview for a week in December. With a little
help from her friends, Luky has surpassed the spare, straightforward
sound of her previous folk-pop projects and created a bona fide
alt-country album. The extra players inject an audible intensity into
already strong songs. Take the title track, which starts with Luky’s
heavyhearted harmonica, enough to put you into a melancholy mood, but
when Goetz’s banjo enters the mix, you get a good hard yank at the
heartstrings. Another case of added depth is Lucky’s electric guitar at
the end of "Arizona." His bluesy tone is the perfect companion to Luky’s
localized lyrics, which concern such community issues as pogey, puck
bunnies and coffeeshop complainers.
Satiated with small town
stories, chock-full of well-crafted country, if you’re hankering for
some home cooking, Kayla Luky’s "The Time it Takes" will satisfy your
hometown appetite.
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Owl is Lethbridge’s newest Lounge in the same building which had Mood, Squeaky’s Pub before and O Riley’s before that. They feature live acoustic music and excellent food. |
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