It’s hard to believe the Owl Acoustic Lounge has been around for a year already.

They celebrated their anniversary with a full house packed wall to wall with people listening to great local music, June 25.

I arrived in time to hear a typically strong set with bluesman Darryl Düus backed by Steve Harris on bass and Brad Valgardson, who provided an air-tight rhythm section, allowing Düus to do all of his usual bluesman tricks, like wandering through the crowd playing slide guitar with beer bottles and saltshakers, then right out the door during  “Boot Hill,” then back on stage for “Who Do You Love.”

He played a hot set of upbeat blues rock including blues standards powered by his gravely growl.

 Most of the people were on hand to see Savk or Calgary musician Stephen A van Kampen. They played a tight set filled with harmonized melodies, keyboards and guitar. Their last two songs were upbeat folk/ rock/pop numbers which got a lot of people crowd in front to the stage dancing.

 The Necessities, featuring Owl owner Steve Foord, finished the night by getting more people up on their feet with a set of affable, melodic folk/ pop rock which included crowd favourite The Cricket Song (Death To The Sun) and plenty of music from their CD.

Vista Park and Katie Streibel were also on the bill to open the night of celebration.