Folk musician James Gordon was at play like he was in his own living room at the Lethbridge Folk Club, Saturday, April 22. A good sized crown sat comfortably  in the Lethbridge College Cave as the Guelph based folk musician  bounced between reading passages from his two new books to playing tin whistle, guitar and a long necked banjo.

 I arrived as he was name dropping Lethbridge and Cypress Hills in  his song “ Lonesome Cowboy’s Lament.”

 He has a lot of music to choose from over a career that has spanned four decades, so he played a little bot of everything including music from his  latest CD “When I Stayed Home“ and some of the songs from the soundtrack he recorded for his novel “ The Ark of the Oven Mitt.”

He flipped through the pages of a notebook for the lyrics and chords to play an audience request for some songs from his ’90s folk band Tamarack.

He showed his environmental side on “ This Canoe Runs on Water.”

 He played tin whistle on a song which he sang a cappella.

 Gordon told a few stories about working for  CBC Radio show “Basic Black,” where he would listen to Arthur Black’s interviews and write a song based on one of his interviews.

“You had to listen to the show, I got paid to listen,” he laughed, before playing a quirky song called “Sweaters for Penguins” about a group of ladies deciding to knit sweaters for penguins to help protect them from oil spills. He thought that was his only  knitting song, but remembered another one, which he played.

 He told another story about the “ the same turkey dinner’ served at public function he was hired to play at.

In honour of Earth Day, He played one of many environment themed numbers which had a waltz feel.

He played a lot of his funniest songs including “ I’m Wearing Rover Now.”

Gordon ended on a serious, more tender note  with “Fall And Rise” from the “Ark of the Oven Mitt.”

 The next Lethbridge Folk Club show is Sunday, May 14 at 7 p.m. with Lynne Hanson. Karen Romanchuk opens the show.  Tickets are $35, $30 for members and $10 for students.

— By Richard Amery, L.A. Beat Editor