John Wort Hannam was in a playful if not profane mood for Upside Downtown, Thursday Aug. 10 outside casa.

 The Allied Arts Council have been getting excellent crowds for their weekly Thursday afternoon summer festival.

 I missed Bailiey Kate this week, but  couldn’t miss John Wort Hannam last week.

Hannam started his set solo, but apologized for muffing the second song, showing even the pros sometimes forget their own songs.

 That was soon forgotten as he welcomed fiddle player Scott Duncan on stage to play the next  couple incendiary fiddle powered songs including “I Believe,” which left the audience with jaws agape.

 The rest of the band, upright bassist Jason Valleau, drummer Kyle Harmon and keyboardist Steve Fletcher, who all traded solos in between songs while Hannam regaled the audience with stories and a couple off colour jokes about penis puppetry during covid.

 The foibles were forgotten as Hannam bared his heart and shared his soul  for  “Forever Young,” a song about his dad, who passed away from cancer during Covid.

 John Wort Hannam’s earnest  manner and self deprecating humour   brought in the crowd.

 They played a lot from  his most recent album “Long Haul.” Hannam talked about trying to teach his son Charlie, who was selling merch for his dad, during Covid and mourning the fact he was growing up so quickly, and dedicated “Hurry Up Kid,” to him.

 There were a lot of ripping solos for Fletcher, Duncan and even Valleau providing a few bass solos, which were the icing on the cake of an exceptional set which also included a few old favourites like “Church of the Long Grass.”

They ended their first set with my favourite “Meat Draw”  from “Long haul” which reallly should be a hit on country radio.

Friday Aug. 11

Badlands play Upside Downtown at casa, next Thursday, Aug. 24.

— by Richard Amery, L.A. Beat Editor

 It is always a pleasure to hear Papa King play the blues.

 He played the Slice on Thursday, but I caught the second set of his show at the Owl Acoustic Lounge, Friday, Aug. 12. King played guitar and sang and added percussion.

 King opened the set on cigar box guitar and soon switched to a couple of others delivering gritty blues with his gravelly Dr. John baritone.

 Doug Freeman held down the bottom  end on bass and Ed Johnson added lead guitar licks.

 They opened set two  by doing a fantastic job on my favourite Harpdog Brown song “ Facebook Woman.”

  They followed it up with my favourite Papa King song “ Busy Boy Blues.”

 King gave the audience a preview of some of the songs on his soon to be released new album.

Elmore James’ “Moneymaker” was a highlight of these.

He witched to his “crossbow” guitar for some slower blues.

“ Chocolate” was another highlight.

They wound the second set down with a laid back, groovy version of the Rolling Stones‘ “ Cant Get No Satisfaction.”

The ended with a cover of blues class classic “ I’m Ready.”

— By Richard Amery, L.A. Beat Editor

 The Slice went pop on Saturday, Aug. 12 with Edmonton based contemporary pop rock band Waffelhouse who entertained an enthusiastic audience of approximately 50 people.

They played a tight, peppy and pop fuelled, enjoyably fun set.

How can it not be fun when they have songs about toothbrushes and frothy music featuring melodica and kazoo solos.

 The two talented female vocalists harmonized together and took turns singing lead and played beautifully off each other over a bedrock of music which leaned heavily into pop territory but with just a touch of jazz and a touch of ’’80s pop.

They played mostly original material, butt added dded a pretty version of “killing me Softly with my Song.”

 They got a little angry with the highlight “ Fuck That Bitch.”

 They were called back for an encore of “ The Pina Colada Song,” and called it a night.

I missed opening sets from Damian and  Chrome Harvest

 — by Richard Amery, L.A. Beat Editor

 The Slice  went punk for a Sunday afternoon, Aug. 13 by bringing back Medicine Hat metal/ punk band Total Wolf and Vancouver punk stalwarts thew Golers to play for approximately 50 sweltering local punks.

Total Wolf were totally amazing.

They reminded me of a more metal Citizen Rage and a little bit of the Rebel Spell in other places.

 Vocals ranged between almost operatic and emo to straight out barking over ball to the wall riffs and  a few hot guitar solos.

 The bassist held it all together with some intricate licks plus some straight ahead Iron Maiden style galloping riffs.

“ Fuck it All” was a highlight of their set.

 Veteran punk  trio the Golers (Inbred Militia) played an unhinged set featuring shrieking bassist Charlie Goler.

 They were a lot more thrash metal than punk. They played an intense set that pretty much peeled the paint off the Slice’s walls.

— By Richard Amery, L.A. Beat  Editor