It’s good to be back.
It’s been two long years since we had a South Country Fair to look forward to in the Fort Macleod Fish and Game Park.
So there were a lot of happy, yet sweaty and scorched people at the Fair this weekend.
The best thing about the Fair, other than the music itself is the camaraderie.
Most people was greeting each other with a cheerful “Happy Fair.” Water trucks kept everybody hydrated and a few volunteers wandered the grounds spraying grateful people with water.
While I missed Friday night, I arrived in time to catch the day on the South stage, July 16 , volunteering at the CKXU tent .
I wasn’t able to check out the East stage, but there was plenty of great music happening on the South Stage.
I I arrived as Emily Triggs was in the middle of a laid back set of stories and original folk music for a few baking in front of the stage
Another one of my favourite parts of the Fair are the workshops or South Country Fair Sessions.
With a band name like Copperhead, you’d expect some sort of Steve Earle tribute, but the Calgary based band was anything but.
Lead singer/keyboardist Liz Stevens admitted she was feeling the effects of the night before and opted to play a laid back set of soulful dark country music more in line with the Cowboy Junkies than Steve Earle.
Multi-instrumentalist Hawksley Workman focussed on guitar playing and wanted to jam as he shouted out “E minor” for everybody to jam on his first song of the workshop as Stevens thanked “musical director” Hawksley Workman.
Workman demonstrated his impressive falsetto and noted he enjoyed playing for the Geomatic Attic earlier this year. Things took off after that.
Workman played a couple of his better known songs like “Jealous of Your Cigarette” and “Battlefords” priming the audience for his Saturday night set by painting vivid, heartfelt pictures of Caandiana and youth.
Everybody added a few notes.
Copperhead picked up the tempo and looked like they were having fun playing together.
Hoop dancer Sandra Lamouche opted to recite a couple poems for her tweener.
Ryland Moranz started off the afternoon playing a few songs on banjo in between acts and handed over the mic to Digital Hobo, who played a few songs from his CD “ 21st Century Ballads,” which he described as songs written about things that haven’t happened yet.
He sang songs about a world where people learned to along and had managed to control climate change. So he painted a pretty idyllic picture of an attainable future.
His laid back , optimistic vibe pretty much epitomized what South Country Fair is all about.
I was looking forward to seeing the Alien Rebels again.
Any band with Lance Loree in it is going to be entertaining and they were. Loree grinned and played hot wired solos solos, and sang a few leads. He traded lead vocals with Mark Sadlier-Brown and even bassist James Suitcase Stanley sang lead on a couple songs. Kevin Belzner held down the beat on drums.
They played a range of rockabilly, surf music and quirky country music . They even added a few bars of “My Sharona” to their first song.
They touched on the blues with “ Dance Sister Dance,” and after a couple surf instrumentals, went full throttle classic rockabilly for “Ubangi Stomp.”
The always entertaining Circus Act Insomniacs danced in front of the stage wearing lampshades.
April Verch and Cody Walters dug through a book of “ traditional fiddle songs and went across Canada for their set.
Verch demonstrated some sweet dance steps, noting she was combining several different dance styles for her Ottawa dance.
Their first songs was in French.
She introduced a song called “firewood” about chopping firewood to heat their cabin. She noted they were isolated together during Covid .
“ When we got sick of seeing each other, we’d dig up a book of fiddle tunes and learned one of them.”
The other workshop I was glad to catch was a pair of Vancouver duos— Kitty and the Rooster (who played Friday night) and A Million Dollars in Pennies.
“ We both live in the same neighbourhood, but had to come to Fort Macleod to hang out together,” observed Jodie (Kitty) Ponto.
They took turns playing their songs and also added harmonies to each others songs.
Kitty and the Rooster, who opted not to wear their trademark rubber kitty and rooster masks, opened the set with “Our theme song Ain’t Pussyfooting Around” with A Million Dollars in Pennies adding harmonies. Unfortunately, the Torchettes, who were supposed to join that work show weren’t able to attend the Fair.
Some of their highlights was a song about all the good band names being taken and my favourite “Sexercise.”
A Million Dollars In Pennies played entertaining, laid back folk and country music.
South Country Fair continues Sunday, July 17
Benj Rowland, who was playing the East Stage on Saturday, opens the South page at 12:30 p.m. followed by Beautiful Joe, John Wort Hannam a South Country Fair sessions with April Verch and Cody Walters and Paul Silveria who was on the East Stage on Saturday.
Sandra Lamouche Jingle Dress and Round Dance closes the South Stage at 4:45.
I’m counting on being at Terra Lightfoot’s East Stage set at noon. She was playing tonight. Jon Martin and the Lovers will follow a South Country
Fair Sessions with Trio Sven, who close off Saturday night and Eugene Chadbourne and Jen Paches close off the East Stage at 2:05 p.m.
— By Richard Amery, L.A. Beat Editor
