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Something for every taste in roots music found in city

Over the next few weeks, there are several opportunities for roots music fans to catch live, independent music.
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Over the next few weeks, there are several opportunities for roots music fans to catch live, independent music.

With numerous shows coming our way over the next few weeks, there is bound to be something of appeal to all listeners.

Tonight at The Hideout, Eve Hell and the Razors take to the stage. Country singer Tim Harwill drops by on Thursday with the Dead Stringers appearing on Feb. 25. Woody Holler and his Orchestra bring modern western swing to The Hideout on Feb. 28.

on Sunday evening, The One Eleven Grill hosts live music as accompaniment to early dinner. Local artists Curtis Phagoo and Randi Boulton perform at the restaurant, located at 108 5301 43rd St. Call 403-347-2111 for reservations.

Into March, The Hideout presents three outstanding Alberta talents: The T. Buckley Trio on March 2, Steve Coffey and The Lokels on March 3, and Leeroy Stagger and the Wildflowers on March 9.

Jeans Off House concerts present the bluesy sounds of Suzie Vinnick on March 4. No doubt this dazzling singer will be playing several songs from her excellent Juno-nominated Me ’n Mabel album. An afternoon performance, tickets are available from Andy and Laura at 403-357-4728.

This week’s reviews:


Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer

Little Blue Egg

Red House Records

When Dave Carter unexpectedly died in 2002, the folk world lost a great, under-heard songwriter and singer. Since then, Tracy Grammer has quietly kept his songs and spirit alive.

Theirs was an evolving musical partnership, with Grammer assuming more responsibility as time passed. Carter’s songs were always their core.

Grammer discovered the source tapes for these performances while cleaning a basement last summer. Recorded in their living room, none of the 11 songs sound like castoffs excised from previous releases. Rather, each is a fully realized creation simply waiting to be discovered.

A few of the songs have appeared in different form on Tracy Grammer albums, but these recordings have never before been released.

Carter’s inclusive spirituality weaves through these songs. Whether spoken in the meditations of the truck driver “somewhere between midnight and the changin’ of tires” (Hard Edge of Livin’) or the midnight vocalist singing “in praise or lamentation, in peace or desperation” (Any Way I Do), Carter and Grammer communicate messages of significance. The album’s standout may well be Gypsy Rose, a song that could have been sung by troubadours hundreds of years ago.

The album’s only non-original is a quiet, duo rendition of Way Over Yonder in the Minor Key, a song from Billy Bragg and Wilco’s Mermaid Avenue; Grammer’s violin playing on this familiar song is especially evocative.

Little Blue Egg is that most treasured of offerings, an unexpected gift.


The Pines

Dark So Gold

Red House Records

The third album from the Minnesota-based folk duo of Benson Ramsey (son of Bo) and David Huckfelt is as lush and detailed as their previous offerings, but this time out there is a spooky starkness that results in an even more satisfying listening experience.

As they have previously done, The Pines produce harmonious, folk-based music that at its core is literate and no little bit mysterious. Working this time out with a full band, Ramsey and Huckfelt have created 10 distinct, multi-layered pieces, each which could accompany minimalist cinematic portraits of the rural midwest.

Acoustic-sounding, Dark So Gold is very much rooted in the blues tradition that has informed the practice of most guitar-based folksingers since 1961; a nod to Bob indeed, but The Pines have created their own little niche in the crowded contemporary folk fold.

Recommended if you like Bon Iver, John K. Samson, and Deep Dark Woods.

Donald Teplyske is a local freelance writer who contributes a twice-monthly column on roots music; visit fervorcoulee.wordpress.com for additional reviews. If you know a roots music event of which he should be aware, contact him at fervorcoulee@shaw.ca