Day Three line-up.
Noon Gates Open
12:50 Oh Susanna
1:55 Lee Harvey Osmond
2:45 Colter Wall
3:20 Lake Street Dive
4:10 Clinton St. John
4:45 Black Joe Lewis
5:35 Lucette
6:10 Buffy Sainte-Marie
7:00 JJ Shiplett
7:35 All-Stars: Luke Doucet, Kathleen Edwards, and Joel Plaskett
9:00 Charles Bradley
The first band of the day that I caught was Hamilton, Ontario band Lee Harvey Osmond who is led by Tom Wilson who also plays in Blackie and the Rodeo Kings and played in the 90's band Junkhouse. This was my first time seeing Harvey Lee Osmond perform in concert. They played an energetic rocking set, a band I will surely checkout again.
Lee Harvey Osmond.
The next band I caught was a band out of Boston called Lake Street Dive. The band is fronted by the very pretty Rachael Price who also plays ukulele and guitar. Their music is a mix of southern rock/country/jazz and pop. I had never heard their music before but was won over by their great performance, another band I will be looking out for.
Lake Street Dive.
Next up was the Austin, Texas musician Black Joe Lewis. This is a band I have been following for about five years now but had never seen play live before. Black Joe Lewis plays a blues funk style of music backed up with a great horn section, and Joe Lewis can rip it up on a guitar. I was really impressed with there set. One of the highlights of the weekend for me.
Black Joe Lewis.
Up next was Buffy Sainte-Marie an artist originally from Saskatchewan who is a Canadian Native singer-songwriter who at the age of seventy-four is on tour promoting her latest album Power In The Blood. Her folk rock music covers such subjects as love, war, native issues and religion. She absolutely commanded the stage with her presence and put on one hell of a show. I had never seen her in concert before and for that I kick my ass. She was excellent live with a great voice and her guitar playing was top notch as well. She also had a great back-up band. The crowd was eating up her music with lots of dancing and singing along. An amazing set by a lady full of energy that you would never guess is seventy-four years old.
Buffy Sainte-Marie.
What has become a tradition of the Interstellar Rodeo is the all-star jam band, who was up next. This years All-Star band consisted of Joel Plaskett, Luke Doucet and Kathleen Edwards.
I was really looking forward to this as I am a huge Joel Plaskett fan and have seen him perform a handful of times and have never been disappointed by any of his performances. And again, he more then hit expectations, as did the rest of the artists in this jam session. In this jam session each member plays songs from their repertoire. Luke Doucet who is in the band Whitehorse and has also done his own solo albums played some of his solo stuff. I'm not too familiar with his solo stuff, but what he played sounded great as did Kathleen Edwards stuff. Kathleen Edwards who has been on a music hiatus recently and hasn't performed live in a couple of years as she is concentrating on her coffee shop in Ottawa these days, so this was a rare performance by her. I had seen her live once before when she opened for Willie Nelson here in Edmonton in 2005. She has a great voice and can play the violin like no other.
I have to admit I didn't know a lot of the songs done by the other performers besides Joel Plaskett, but each artist sounded great. Joel Plaskett started the session with a song called "Broke" from his newest release Park Avenue Sobriety Test. This song sounded awesome especially with Kathleen Edwards playing the violin on it. A great way to start.
It's been a few weeks since this show so i don't recall all the songs done in this set. I do remember though, because it would be hard not to recall the band covering the Traveling Wilburys song "Handle Me With Care", that was a major surprise and they did an amazing job on it. All and all this was a fun set to watch and listen to. And you could tell all the musicians were having a blast playing together. Awesome stuff!
The Interstellar All-Stars.
Closing out the Interstellar Rodeo this year was funk/soul Gainesville, Florida musician Charles Bradley. While Charles Bradley is good at what he does and has a great back-up band. I just feel like his whole shtick has been done before, and that would be by the late great James Brown. Charles show even started like a James Brown show would, with the band doing an instrumental song before introducing Charles Bradley, just as James Brown used to do. It's all been done before. His songs were good and the crowd loved it and danced away to it. I myself only stuck around for about five songs before leaving.
Charles Bradley.
This was another successful festival this year with a line-up I wasn't so sure about at first but was won over by lots of new bands that I really enjoyed. Six Shooter Records that puts on this festival every year know what they are doing with a eclectic line-up and a well run festival. I totally enjoyed the whole weekend and look forward to seeing what next years weekend will look like. Congrats to the festival and all the volunteers that help put this on. Good times!!!
T-shirt front.
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