The ATB Dragon Boat Races are always a source of excellent local music. So I caught a few of the acts, June 28 and 29.
I wanted to see Calgary bluesman, Eric Braun, June 29 but just missed his set but was in time to be properly humbled as a guitarist by B.C. born, High River raised wunderkind Calum Graham.
He played impressive classically influenced finger-style runs on his acoustic guitar, added a lot of beautiful harmonics and just about made me want to give up playing.
He played a birthday song for his dad as well as “Phoenix Rising” from his most recent album, which was absolutely gorgeous.
I hadn’t seen Trevor Pancz
ak and Rough Stock for a while, so it was a pleasure to see them at the Dragon Boats. They played a lot of familiar hits and an interesting mash up of “Wagon Wheel” with the Bare Naked Ladies “If I Had a Million Dollars.”
He also played an extended medley of Waylon Jennings hits 
and a couple of Steve Earle songs including “Hillbilly Highway.”
I only caught the first few songs of Fast Times, who closed off the June 29 performances.
Jackie French and Bridgette Yarwood took turns singing lead vocals on a variety of hits including “ I Will Survive” ( Jackie French ) and “ Respect” ( Bridgette Yarwood).
I only caught a few acts on June 8 as well.
But didn’t want to miss blues rock band Driving While Blind. They played plenty of AC DC and ACDC inspired Gutjahr played guitar and did his best Bonn Scott impression. They also played one of my favourites “Going Down.”
For a complete contrast to that, Karen Romanchuk played a solo set of mostly original folk/ country music including several tracks from her latest CD.
“ Be With You” was a highlight of that set.
In the same vein, Treeline and Shaela Miller returned from tour to play the Dragon Boats in Henderson Lake.
They played their typically tight set of original roots and country music including several songs from their most recent CD “ Curtains.”
Daylight Savings” was one of several highlights of their set.
