Loudon Wainwright III Live in St. Albert Jan. 25th 2019

On Friday Char, Buzzard and I made our way to St. Albert's Arden Theatre for the second weekend in a row, this time to see American folk singer-songwriter Loudon Wainwright III in concert. I have wanted to see Loudon in concert for a lot of years, so I was excited about this show.

Well after his 75 minute show I left very disappointed. Loudon looked good and his quite spry at 72 years old, and can still sing and play a decent guitar. But the bummer and frustration of this show was that his song choices weren't very good, I knew very few of the songs he played. And he did way too much talking. From telling stories, which I am fine with, but the stories were long and then he also read a long excerpt from a book he put out a couple years ago called Liner Notes Loudon Wainwright III On Parents & Children, Exes & Excess, Death & Decay, & a Few of My Other Favorite Things. I certainly did come to see Loudon read from a book. I'm sure it's an interesting read but I'll read it on my time thanks! He was really promoting his book and a Netflix show he has called Loudon Wainwright III: Surviving Twin which he reflects upon his relationship with his Dad in a night of songs and stories. Loudon's father worked for Life magazine for years. So ya, Loudon had to read one of his Father's articles too. Way too much talking through out the whole performance. I wanted to just yell at one point "play some fucking music", but I didn't. I'm sure I wasn't the only one thinking that either. With 26 albums out his choice of tunes weren't good. I did like one song I hadn't heard before called "The Wainwrights Go To Alaska", that was a good one with his sense of humour all over that song. I'd be surprised if he did over ten songs. All and all a very disappointing show. Not good times!!!

Loudon Wainwright III

Altameda at Blackbyrd Myoozik Jan.19th 2019

Last Saturday I went to my local record shop Blackbyrd here in Edmonton to catch Altameda perform an acoustic set in celebration of the release of their new album Time Hasn't Changed You. This was a free show by RSVP only, and not only did we get to see Altameda, but there was also free beer courtesy of local craft brewers Bent Stick Brewing.

There was a good turn out for the show, which saw Troy Snaterse and drummer Erik Grice who was playing guitar this time play a four song set at the store. It's too bad though that they had PA problems through out, with the speakers crackling and buzzing. You could see Troy was getting frustrated with the situation but both Troy and Erik soldiered on. I believe they would have played longer had they not had the sound problems. They played a couple new songs "Time Hasn't Changed Me" and "Bowling Green". To end the set they unplugged from the amp and mic and just did a truly unplugged song. That song being a cover song by Big Star called "Thirteen", which sounded amazing. Good times!!!

Joey Landreth Trio and Altameda Live in St.Albert Jan.18th 2019

Last Friday my buddy Buzzard, Char and I made our way to St. Albert's Arden Theatre for the Altameda and Joey Landreth double bill. The main reason for checking out this show was seeing Altameda who actually are from St. Albert a suburb of Edmonton. So this was kind of a hometown show for the guys.

Altameda were opening the show, and this would be their first show of promoting their new album Time Hasn't Changed You, which is officially released this Friday January 25th on Pheremone Recordings. I've been a huge fan of this local band from the first time I saw them live a couple years ago as part of a Record Store Day after party. This would be my seventh time seeing Altameda in concert. The show was sold out and the place was packed for openers Altameda.

The first thing I noticed about the band when they hit the stage was that there were six of them on stage, as normally they are a four piece band and the boys were dressed sharp, have to look good I guess playing a theatre in your hometown. The extra two musicians for this show were Paul Arnusch on percussion and Darrek Anderon on steel guitar, who both added a new dimension to the tunes. Then of course you have the meat of the band which is Troy Snaterse on guitar and vocals, Erik Grice on drums and vocals, Matthew Kraus on keys and Todd Andrews on bass.

The band sounded great in this awesome venue, though I have to admit I prefer when it's just the four of them, but like I say, the two extra did add a new dimension to some of the older tunes. It was nice to hear them play some new tunes, though I have heard a few of them already as the band has had this album Time Hasn't Changed You in the can for almost a year, but got signed to Pheremone Recordings and had to hold off on releasing it for a while. The new songs like the single "Losing Sleep" sounded amazing as did "Rolling Back To You". The song which is kind of the album title song but not "Time Hasn't Changed Me" was great too. Songs played from their first album Dirty Rain played were "Borrowed Suit, Secondhand Dress", "Burning Down", "I Saw A Ghost Last Night" and the title song "Dirty Rain" all sounded amazing. The band put on a great performance and the crowd seemed to be eating it up. Watch for this band on tour out in western Canada here in the next couple of weeks opening for The Trews. Expect big things from Altameda this year. If you are a fan of roots rock in the likes of Ryan Adams, Petty, Wilco and such, this is band well worth looking into.

Altameda.

The new Altameda album.

Headlining the evening was the Joey Landreth Trio. Joey is one of the two brothers that make up the Bros. Landreth Band out of Winnipeg, Manitoba. I heard good things about them so was interested in seeing Joey Landreth in concert.

To start the show the band came out on stage and there were four members, what the hell, I thought it was a trio, not sure if it's a running joke or not, but it threw me for a loop. And Joey's brother David was in the band playing bass, so it was actually the Bros. Landreth, confused yet? I was! Anyways, I thought they were alright, Joey can play a pretty damn good blues style guitar and has a good voice, but it felt like he was holding back on the guitar. I would love to have just heard him rip it the fuck up, but it never did happen. There just wasn't anything that grabbed my attention. They were good but not great. Would I go see him again, probably not. Good times!!!

Joey Landreth Trio.

In concert news...Altameda will be playing two shows here in Edmonton at The Starlite Room opening for The Trews on Wednesday January 30th and Thursday January 31st.

Dan Bern Live in Edmonton Jan.13th 2019

Last Sunday my buddy Buzzard and I went to the Dan Bern concert at the Almanac. This would be my second time seeing Dan Bern in concert. This show at the intimate venue was sold out, and if you are not there early it's some hard to get a decent seat. Doors were to open at7pm, so we got there right at 7 but the venue had to have opened earlier as the place was already packed, so getting a good seat was not going to happen.

Opening the show was a gentleman by the name of Dan Smith a local musician, I had never heard of him before. Dan is a singer songwriter that plays roots based music. I thought he was alright playing mostly original songs, but did play two Townes Van Zandt covers. I thought his set was about 15 minutes too long as I found myself starting to get bored. Didn't help that he was sitting on a stool through is whole set which made it hard to see him unless you were sitting right at the front in which we were not. I would say he has a bright future with his music.

Headlining the evening was American singer/songwriter Dan Bern. After having seen him 11 months ago I had to go again, I enjoyed the show so much last February. Again Dan played to a sold out venue. Dan had a lot of great stories to tell and songs to play, but it seemed this time he did more talking then last time. The stories are great and usually funny, but the show started with him tuning his guitar and getting the sound person trying to get it just right for him. While this was happening he was telling stories but it was about 10 minutes before he finally got a song started. Lots of sound issues through out the show.

Once the songs got going it was a lot of laughs and sing a longs, it surprised me how well the whole audience knew the songs singing along. But then Dan likes to get everyone involved in his live shows. he had the crowd singing along to a song about Barry Bonds (baseball player) homerun totals over the course of his career. Big sing along to the Johnny Cash song "One Piece At A Time" in which Dan told a great story about touring for four months and only playing this song on all his driving between dates until he finally knew the song inside out.

Another big sing along was to his song "Jerusalem", a great song and it was cool to hear everyone sing this one out loud. Dan also played a new Tiger Woods song, this would be the second song he has written about Tiger Woods, and just as funny as his first one. Other songs played were "Black Tornado","Talkin' Canadian Blues", "Chelsea Hotel" and "God Said No".

Dan also told the audience about playing the American and Canadian anthems a few days before in Saskatoon at the Saskatoon Blades hockey game. I'm not sure what is ties are to the hockey team but this is the second time seeing him wearing a Blades wear, last time a t-shirt this time a cap, and doing the anthems at the game. Pretty cool considering they are a junior team that mostly Canadians only know about. His story was quite funny about learning the Canadian anthem and then come show time realizing that shit I'm not so sure I know the American anther's words after having studied all week learning the Canadian one.

It was only weeks after the Edmonton show last year that Dan Bern had an incident with a snow blower trying to unjam it, where he lost a couple of finger tips on his left hand in the accident, serious shit when you make your living playing guitar. Luckily he is back playing and sounding great.

Dan closed out the show with the Canadian national anthem in which the whole audience sang along with him. Good times!!!