Start: 8 p.m.

 Cover:$15

Ridley Bent   www.myspace.com/ridleybent  or www.ridleybent.ca is an up and coming country singer from B.C.. He has a hit, Buckles and Boots, which is played regularly on top 40 country radio station.

 Ridley Bent is an entertainer, a crooner, a gee-tar player and a songwriter with a knack for detail. He's hell on wheels with a microphone whether he's fronting a band or on stage all by his lonesome. He has mastered the art of telling a story. Love and betrayal, cowboy songs, songs of hope and glory, tales of the old west and pop culture, this is Ridley's addiction.

Born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Ridley Bent spent his youth as an army brat traversing across the vast expanses of Canada. He listened to his Pa play Johnny Cash and Hank Williams on his beat-up old guitar. At the time, he never did dig that old country and western. He preferred rock and pop but those old tunes must have sunk into his subconscious because that southern twang is evident in his songs.

He first picked up a guitar in Whistler BC when he came to the realization that a career as a professional skier was out of his reach. Against his loving mother's better judgment he decided to pursue a career in music. He figured if he told good stories, he'd probably do just fine. In the summer of 2000 he moved to Vancouver's East Side and started hitting the open mics and playing on the beach every night. He became an entertainer in his own right, and a security guard on the side.

Ridley has just completed a new album of material titled Buckles and Boots. He hooked up with Vancouver musician John Ellis, who saddled up as Bent's producer. These fellows have been mining for gold and what they've created reveals a rich vein of western swing and wicked word play.

With each passing day Ridley continues to expand his wily and crafty chops as a performer. Whether he's turning heads with a full band or going solo & intimate leaving folks with the warm fuzzies at a backyard hootenanny, Ridley Bent has established himself as a true force to be reckoned with. Check it out.

 The Mokin Pistols are a Lethbridge based outlaw country band.

Smokin Pistols was formed on the mean streets of Lethbridge, Alberta in the summer of 2007. When original lead singer Derrick Mensch divorced and moved to Vancouver, BC, and original bass player Scott Tucker’s truck broke down following the death of his dog, taking him out of the race, drummer Scott Bartlett knew the band was destined for solid country gold ..

Reforming the Pistols in the summer of 2008, Scott (Ben Brown Trio [2008-present], Tim Hughes’ Canada touring band [2005], Lady Chamberlain [2004-06], Floating Axehead [1994-96]) took the reigns as the primary songwriter, on lead vocals and acoustic guitar. One day in a music shop, working on the chorus to “Dyin in the Rain” Bartlett was approached by Shael Pezderic (Rarity [2000-06], Granite Force [2006-present], Travezty [2007-08]) who said “that sounds good .. who is it?” Bartlett replied “that’s me son .. and you should play lead guitar..” Seeing things taking off, Bartlett re-acquired long time musical connection Steven “TP” Birss (The Learning Process [1997-04], Momento Mori [2000-present], the Gate [1998-present]) to play bass guitar, honky tonk piano and organ. The final nail in the coffin was when Bartlett witnessed the catastrophic breakup of a local punk band and knew it’s drummer, Ryan Labreque (Unnamed Project [2008-09], Open to Closure [2006-08], Corporate Conspiracy [2003-05]) would need a new home, on the run with some good old boys.

Smokin Pistols has been described by fans, bar owners, and even the media as “like an Old School Country band, but rougher and faster, putting on a rock and roll performance with some serious grunge attitude” .. A common theme running through fan remarks was summed up recently at a show in Claresholm, AB, “when bands come here I’m usually bored after the first set .. You had me the whole time; I actually hate country, but you guys make me half-ass respect it”. Smokin Pistols’ covers span three generations of outlaw country from the King of Country (Hank Williams, Sr) to Willie, Waylon & David Allan Coe, to the likes of Hank III and Shooter Jennings. Smokin Pistols original music combines lyrical elements of third-generation outlaw country, vamped up old-school sound and themes spanning everything from lost love, to heavy drinking, to murder.

Smokin Pistols first album, Love in the Name of Murder, is scheduled for a third quarter release.

Smokin Pistols is a hard-working blue collar band, who appreciate the business side of music as much as the music itself, Bartlett once said “Good music is important, but so is working with the venue, so is talking to the crowd during and after, you want to help people have a good time - because people having a good time stick around -- they eat, drink and spend .. then everyone wins.”
 

www.myspace.com/smokinpistolsposse -