The Geomatic Attic has had a great run of sold out shows, though it was no surprise that this year’s edition of the Highway 3 Roots Revue was a sold out show, Dec. 1 as it features three of the best singer songwriters, Lethbridge has to offer in Dave McCann, John Wort Hannam and Leeroy Stagger.
All three have kind of grown up together on Lethbridge]s scene and have since matured into laid back, hardworking family men.
They used the first set to introduce new music to the enraptured audience. Dave McCann opened the show by saying the trio used to tour for two weeks together before realizing “ touring in December is a bad idea.”
Most of the new songs were about the joys of family and enjoying being at home counterbalanced by songs about being on the road.
John Wort Hannam played “ Acres of Elbow Room,” his contribution to the new Skinny Dyck and Friends Twenty-One Night Stands” compilation.
Leeroy Stagger added “Dirty Windshields,” the namesake of his CKUA radio show, while McCann added “Headlights and Halos,” the title track from his last CD. And Hannam added “Chasing the Song” while displayed fleet fingered guitar picking.
Dave McCann followed that up by chatting about his inspiration Pete Seeger and playing a new song about that called “ When The Crows Come to Carry Me Home.”
Hannam returned to familiar territory with crowd favourite “Church of the Long Grass.”
Stagger played his powerful new song “Broken Generation,” which he premiered at the opening Lethbridge date with Barney Bentall’s Cariboo Express tour in Lethbridge, after talking about the importance of love and chatting with Bruce Cockburn and asking him “if love was enough.”
McCann followed that up with a new song called “Bridges.” and had Stagger and Hannam and the audience singing along “Rolling, rolling, rolling.”
Hannam wound up the first set with a heartfelt new song he wrote at his residency at the Banff Centre for the Arts about all the things he misses when he’s on the road like family and his son Charlie called “Missing it All.”
