My Favourite Shows of 2019

Got out to a few shows again this year. Here is a list of my favourite shows of 2019. All shows in Edmonton unless otherwise noted.

* Mike Plume Band @ The Starlite Room June 14th
My favourite show of the year for sure. An evening with the Mike Plume Band. An epic three hour show that rocked from start to finish. What really made this show special was this was the only the second show (having played Calgary night before) that Mike and his old band had played together in 19 years. They didn't miss a beat. This show was a treat and hope to see this line up play together again in 2020, and rumour is, that will happen. Amazing concert!

* Thrush Hermit @ Starlite Room October 11th
Wow, this show was a rocker. Joel Plaskett's old band put on a hell of a show. Would love to see this one again.

* Outlaws Music Festival @ Budweiser Stage in Toronto June 21st
Not only did we get to see Willie Nelson in concert, the whole festival was just a lot of fun. Outdoor amphitheatre, weather was awesome, took Janis and the kids with us and their partners. Atmosphere was excellent as well. Decent line up that included Allison Krauss, Avett Brothers and Matt Mays.

* Perry Farrell @ The Mod Club in Toronto June 25th
Never thought I'd see the lead singer of Janes Addiction play a small club. I loved his new album and this show was awesome.

* Asleep At The Wheel at Interstellar Rodeo @ Hawrelak Park July 28th
A big surprise for me how good Asleep At The Wheel were. Old school country. Only went to one night of Interstellar this year, but I picked the right day to go. RIP Interstellar, you will be missed.

* Jason Isbell at Edmonton Folk Fest August 9th
Isbell was amazing, it's just too bad about the rules at the Folk Fest. Would have been nice to have a few drinks on the hill. Isbell sounded great.

* Leeroy Stagger and Altameda @ Henry Martell Park June 15th
Two great Alberta bands playing back to back at a little park by the river valley. A community run event, we were able to sit in this park, brought our own beers and swilled. Very relaxed atmosphere. A really good time.

* Judas Priest with Uriah Heep @ Rogers Place June 11th
An awesome double bill. Priest were in fine form as were openers Uriah Heep. And all for 20 dollars.

* The Pursuit Of Happiness at Edmonton Rock Fest @ Hawrelak Park August 17th
This was my first time going to this festival. TPOH was the only reason I wanted to go, but we had a blast at this all day festival. TPOH were excellent.

* Elton John @ Rogers Place September 27th
A last minute decision to go to the show. Tex were super expensive but we managed to get decent priced tickets. I'd never seen Elton in concert before. Sure glad I went. This was a great concert.

* Def Leppard and Tesla @ Rogers Place July 29th
This was a really fun show. Have always been a big fan of Tesla, and Def Leppard were actually a lot of fun too.

* Fleetwood Mac @ Rogers Place November 12th
After two cancellations and having our tickets for over a year by the time the band finally played this show. Although Buckingham is no longer on the band, still a good show.

* Horse Feathers @ Station On Jasper May 5th
A band I had just got in to. I was surprised to see them come through town. Great show and super good guys to meet and have a few drinks with. Hope to see them come through town again soon.

* Real Sickies and Napalmpom @ 9910 March 15th
A great double bill of full on rock!

A pretty good year for shows. 2020 is shaping up to be a good year as well already! Support your local music scene. Good times!!!

The Pogues Whiskey

I came across this Pogues Whiskey awhile ago and had to have it. Being a fan of a nice sipping whiskey and also a fan of the legendary Irish celtic punk band The Pogues I had to grab me a bottle. This is a great tasting whiskey with a creamy toffee vanilla after taste. I found this at a local liquor store in Edmonton called Sherbrooke Liquor. So I did what came naturally and put on some Pogues music and had myself a few drinks. This is a whiskey well worth trying to find. Good times!!!

My Favourite Albums of 2019

Another year another list of my favourites, not that anyone gives a shit but I need to get it off my chest. So here we go.

* Altameda - Time Hasn't Changed You
A local band (Edmonton) that put out an absolutely amazing sophomore record. Just great rock n' roll in the vain of Petty, Wallflowers, Wilco, The Boss and such. This album came out in January and has got constant spins from me since the day of release. My most played album of the year! Great stuff guys!!!

* Sturgill Simpson - Sound & Fury
This album may alienate some of his fans, but if anything it's made me ever more of a fan. If you were expecting a country album like his previous albums, you will be disappointed. This is a rock n' roll album with flashes of Crazy Horse style noise. A brilliant album, favourite track is the last song "Fastest Horse In Town", wow, such a rocking tune!

* Titus Andronicus - An Obelisk
A back to form album from Titus Andronicus. This one is a rocker.

* Bob Dylan - The Bootleg Series Vol.15 Travelin' Thru, 1967-1969
Another volume from the Dylan bootleg series this one featuring songs from his collaboration with Johnny Cash. Lots of interesting songs on this release.

* JJ Cale - Stay Around
An amazing blues album. A bunch of previously unreleased songs. Love this record. It got lots of spins this year.

* Perry Farrell - Kind Heaven
This album got panned by the critics. I fucking love it! To me it's a mix of Janes Addiction, Porno For Pyros and as always with Perry, an experimental album. I played this one a lot this year too.

* Leeroy Stagger - Strange Path
The second of two albums Leeroy put out this year. His releases keep getting stronger. An amazing artist.

* Starcrawler - Devour You
The second album by this band is a great punk album but it's more then just that. It's got a touch of melodic riffs, rock and the band backing up lead singer Arrow De Wilde is amazing. Love the album cover too. First album I have that has a scratch and sniff cover.

* The Hold Steady - Thrashing Thru The Passion
Another band that has got back to their roots. A great record that rocks and the lyrics are awesome. Nice to see The Hold Steady put out their best album in years.

* Real Sickies - Out Of Space
Edmonton punkers put out another great album. Old school punk.

* The Bronx - Dead Tracks Vol.1 & 2
A band I absolutely love released a very limited (750) 2 LP set of b-sides, demos, covers and rarities from their career thus far.

* Vandoliers - Forever
A band my Brother introduced me to. A mix of country/punk style music. Good stuff!

* The Raconteurs - Help Us Strangers
After ten years Jack White got The Raconteurs back together for a new album. I like this straight up rock n' roll album.

* The Black Keys - Let's Rock
A meat and potatoes rock album. I like it!

* Meat Puppets - Dusty Notes
This album too got shitty reviews but I like it. Maybe not as rocking as earlier albums. But it has some alt country psychedelia. This album grew on me with some listens.

Another album that belongs on here is Dave Hause's album Kick but I have yet to get my hands on a physical copy.

Mike Plume Live in Edmonton Nov.29th 2019

A month ago Buzzard, Janis and I went to the Mike Plume show at the Station On Jasper. By the time we got to the venue all the seats were gone, and we were there early enough to catch the opener. But after standing for the first few songs, the awesome waitress managed to grab a table for us, so at least now we weren't standing and sitting on the small stage. We now at least had a table to lean on and put our drinks. Wasn't long after that, that the waitress then brought us a stool, excellent, now Janis could sit. Little after that, the table across from us had an extra stool and gave us that. That was nice, and now we were set up perfect, had a table, stools and a pretty good spot to watch the show from. Thank you to the group that gave us the extra stool, and a big thanks to the awesome job the waitress was doing looking after not only everyone's drink orders but looking after the clientele making sure they were comfortable. Opening the show was JJ Voss a musician from Saskatchewan. He was alright, his voice reminded me of Chuck Ragan of Hot Water Music at first with his gravely voice, his music is in the roots/country vain. He was alright, I thought his songs sounded a lot a like and his between song banters with his stories were a bit long winded. he did do a great Jason Isbell cover, as well as a song that he wrote with Mike Plume which was pretty good.

JJ Voss.

Next up was Mike Plume. For those that follow my blog know I am a huge fan of his. This would be my 20th time seeing Mike in concert and as always an amazing show. Mike had a great crowd for the show, not sold out but a decent crowd nonetheless.

As per usual Mike doesn't use a setlist for his shows, which always makes for a different show, never knowing what he may pull out of his beautiful catalog of tunes. For the past year though Mike has been opening his shows with the song "My Old Friend" from his latest album Born By The Radio, but on this night he opened with a different song from the same album, that song being "Monroe's Mandolin" another wickedly great song, then it was "My Old Friend". From there it was a great mix of songs covering his whole discography. Songs like "Best Job I Ever Had", "So Long Stompin' Tom", "Jubilee", "Mama's Rolling Stone", "Me and Ern", "More Than A Game", "Big American Headliner", "Long Long Line Of Fools" and of course "8:30 Newfoundland". But among some of the usual songs were some gems like "Ohio" from his 2003 album Table For One, this was the first time I had heard him play this song. Another song he played that I never had hear him perform before was one that I had requested. During Mike's shows he will ask the audience what they wanna hear. So you always get a smattering of requests. Well, I yelled out for the song "Everything's Alright"! I had been listening to his album Songs From A Northern Town on the way to work one day when this song came on and blew my mind. It is a song that really resonates with me over the past year or so and had me in tears. Well for his encore he played this song and dedicated it to Janis and I. Man this song it us hard, we were both sitting there listening to the song as Mike played it, Janis had never heard the song before and as it was being played I looked at her and like me, she had tears rolling down her cheeks too. Such an amazing song. Thank you so much Mike for rolling this one out. Mike really knows how to command the stage and audience with lots of interplay and singing along with the audience and then of course there is Mike's quick wit and sense of humour, never a boring show. Good times!!!

Watch for Mike Plume to have a big year in 2020. Plume just recently signed with Royalty Records and will be releasing a new album in May of next year with his full band titled Lonesome Stretch Of Highway. Watch for Mike on the road next year and be sure to checkout this Canadian singer/songwriter. You will not be disappointed!

Mike Plume.

Black Friday Record Store Day 2019 purchases.

My Black Friday Record Store Day pick ups. The Black Friday RSD isn't near as interesting or as good as the real RSD in April but there is always something I want. Sadly this time I missed out on the one album I really wanted, which was the Pearl Jam Unplugged album. The record shop I frequent didn't even get it in. So I was shit out of luck on that one. I did manage to pick up the following albums though.

John Lee Hooker - Black Night Is Falling
A great live album recorded in Montreal, Quebec at the Rising Sun Celebrity Jazz Club on May 5th 1977. Some old school boogie rock n' roll. Limited edition of 2000.

Gov't Mule - Bring On The Music, Live At The Capitol Theatre Vol.3
Another live album, this one by jam band Gov't Mule recorded on April 27th and 28th 2018 in Port Chester, New York. This is on Purple/Yellow Striped vinyl and is a limited run of 2000 as well.

Lou Reed - The Raven
This album is Lou's 19th solo album from 2003 and the first time it has been released on vinyl. It is triple album of short stories and poems of Edgar Allan Poe. This is a really tough listen and is pretty much for completists only. I paid too much for this and highly doubt it will get another spin. Limited to 5000 copies.

Alice Cooper - Billion Dollar Babies Live
Yet another live album. Recorded in Houston,Texas in April of 1973. This is my favourite pick up for RSD. The sound is great and the performance is amazing. This record also came with a seven inch single featuring "School's Out" and "Under My Wheels". What I thought was cool about this album is that the cover art is sharp and the inside of the jacket is printed green snake like pattern of the album Billion Dollar Babies. A limited release of 6000.

Willie Nelson - Seven inch single with "Sometimes Even I Can Get Too High" on the A side and "It's All Going To Pot" on the B side. A limited edition of 4000.

Altameda Live @ 9910 in Edmonton Nov.28th 2019

My buddy Buzzard and I went to the Altameda show at 9910 last week. Opening the show was an Edmonton band called Bud Frasier & The Electric Razors. The band is made up of members from other local bands like Shout Out Out Out Out, Wet Secrets and Whitey Houston. I had never heard or seen them before, so I was looking forward to checking them out. I really enjoyed their opening set, fun rock n' roll with a great vibe. I would certainly go see them again.

Bud Frasier & The Electric Razors.

Closing out the show was Edmonton rockers Altameda. This would be my 12th time seeing them in concert. The first thing I noticed this time around was that they have a new bassist. He seemed to fit in great with the rest of the guys led by Troy Snaterse on guitar and vocals. As I have said many times before, these guys rock, a little alt country and whole lot of rock n' roll. Troy sounded excellent and drummer Erik Grice always amazes me with his Keith Moon drumming style and backing vocals, so fucking good! And on keys Matt Kraus always adds just the right amount of keys to make the songs flow so well. The band played all the songs I expected and even a new song. A great set as always from Altameda. After a very busy year of touring for their album Time Hasn't Changed Me taking them across Canada a few times and a successful Germany tour the band is taking some time off and will begin working on a new album for a spring release in 2020. A great show to a great crowd. Good times!!!

Altameda.

Songs For Larry - Jr.Gone Wild Live Nov.23rd 2019

Last Saturday afternoon my buddy Buzzard and I went to the free Jr.Gone Wild show at the Cask & Barrel. This would be like no other JGW show before, as with the passing of JGW drummer Larry Shelast on November 6th of a heart attack. There would be no drummer backing up the band.

This show was dubbed Songs For Larry! By showtime the place was packed with family, friends and fans. It started with lead singer Mike McDonald of JGW playing two solo songs by himself on acoustic, after that Mike asked for "what's left of JGW to join him on stage". That would be Steve Loree on guitar and Dove on bass.

This would be my 12th time seeing Jr.Gone Wild play. This must have been an incredibly hard show for the guys to play. It seemed so weird to see the band perform without Larry behind the band. The show was good, lots of classic songs played and some new material that the band have been working on for a while now. There were some Larry stories told through out the show, some laughs, some tears and some rock n' roll. There were a few hiccups, one song they had to start over three times as the band seemed to really miss Larry on that one who would usually count the band in. I wish I could remember what song it was, but when it takes me a week to write about the show, well my memory isn't what it used to be. Mike even said they felt lost up there without Larry, but they did manage to pull it off. Who knows what is in the future for the band. There is new material written, so hopefully that will see the light of day, and there is also a documentary film in the works.

The show was a great tribute to Larry Shelast. Condolences to Larry's family, friends and band-mates. Rest In Peace Larry!!!

Raise a glass to Larry Shelast!