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.
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