Even Bobby Johns (the former Wooden Kilt) on the north side had a good crowd for a solo show from local bluesman Steve Keenan, Dec. 18.

While I missed his  set of fiery fiddle music, I arrived in time to hear some blues music including a fleet fingered instrumental, which sounded like Duane Eddy, as well as popular hits like Cocaine, Who Do You Love, Mr. Jones, Lay Down Sally and CCR’s  Born on the Bayou.

He demonstrated an excellent voice, not to mention guitar chops and an affable stage presence throughout.

Dalliance Elixir  returned to the Owl Acoustic Lounge, Dec. 18 to play an appealing set of jazzy pop music with a lot of Fleetwood Mac thrown in to the mix as well.

Singer Jolene  Draper still showed her Supremes influence while Bruce Roome and Murray Nelson took turns on bass and guitar.

They had special guest Anthony Pittarelli  on drums, playing a subdued beat.

While they started with a  handful of people,  the room slowly began to fill up as more trickled in through the set which included several Rumours era Fleetwood Mac, a quirky‘ original little ditty’ called the Earth song and their version of Good Loving.

I’m not a huge rap fan, I don’t see the appeal of it, but respect those who are into it, so I wanted to see how a rap show would go over at the Owl Acoustic Lounge, Dec. 17 where local rappers  the City Prophets and Tru Apostles were performing.

 I arrived in the middle of a set of rap and hip hop covers from the City Prophets, who had just finished performing some originals.
 They had a good sized crowd there for the show  who were the loudest and most rambunctious audience I’ve seen at the Owl.

The three rappers knew how to play to them, shouting at them  to ‘make some noise’ while jumping all over the stage with endless energy, taking turns at the mic.

A group of familiar faces played a superb tribute to Steely Dan, Dec. 17 at the Slice.

Most of  the Jimmy Mac band took the stage first with the addition of Jon Martin on guitar to play the Caribbean tinged jazz rock instrumentals from their self titled CD.

Jason Schultchen played some  groovy bass, Anthony Pittarelli kept the beat on drums, while Brad Brouwer added upbeat percussion as Martin played tasteful guitar leads and Jim McLaren warmed up his fingers on keyboards and organ for the Steely Dan workout to come.

After a slight line-up change, with James Oldenburg (coming straight from an early gig at the Mocha Cabana) on guitar and vocals and Paul Holden on bass, they played a variety of Steely Dan favourites like “Do It Again,” and “Kid Charlemagne.”

McLaren was impressive on keyboards and also vocals.

And between him and James Oldenburg, nailed the Steely Dan vocal sound.
 They ended their last set with “Hey 19.”