Ayla Brook & The Sound Men Live in Edmonton June 30th 2026

 

 On Tuesday night my buddy Buzzard and I ventured to Southbound Brewing to catch Ayla Brook & The Sound Men. This Edmonton brewery is a place I have always wanted to checkout, so this was the perfect time to do so. This is a very cool brewery that has been putting on quite a few shows and having open mic nights. They also have a patio that they open up, weather permitting of course, and on this evening with a weather forecast of a chance of rain which has been what the whole month of June has been like. There was talk of releasing more tickets for this sold out show, but didn't happen because of rain. Although it didn't rain that night, it was raining before the show. Great beer and atmosphere here with a Thin Lizzy theme from the name of the place to the Thin Lizzy albums displayed behind the bar and a Phil Lynott painting hung in bar.

 Opening the show was Nadine Kellman. She is a local singer/songwriter playing folk style of music. I'll be honest and say I didn't pay a lot of attention to her as I was filling my face with grilled cheese sandwiches as Cheese Louise YEG were on hand slinging their awesome grilled cheese sandwiches.

Nadine Kellman.

 Next up was Edmonton roots rockers Ayla Brook & The Sound Men. It was good to see the band playing again, it had been four years since I had last seen them perform. And this would be my 3rd time seeing them live. This show also marked the 18th anniversary of them being a band. Also making this show a special occasion was bass player Brent Oliver's last show with the band.

 The Sound Men are made up of Ayla on guitar and vocals, Brent on bass, Chris Sturwold on drums, Sean Brewer on acoustic guitar and vocals and Johnny Blerot on accordion and keyboard.

 The guys sounded great on this evening, Ayla was rocking out and his vocals were great, Chris on drums was an animal, way more animated than I recall him being, looked like he had the spirit of Keith Moon in him on this night. The band was a little rough admitting they had only rehearsed a few times before this show. They had to restart a few songs over with a count in after Chris would miss his count in. The band played for over an hour playing tunes from their two albums 2020's Desolation Sounds and (I Don't Want To Hear Your) Break Up Songs from 2016.

Ayla Brook & The Sound Men.

Jr. Gone Wild Live in Edmonton July 30th 2022

On a beautiful Saturday afternoon my buddy A-Bomb, my Cuz and I made our way to downtown Edmonton for the Taste Of Edmonton Festival, which is a festival of different restraunts selling their goods in Churchill Park. It is a ten day festival of food and music. This was the last day of the festival with the music headliner being Edmonton's Jr.Gone Wild with Ayla Brook and The Sound Men opening, another Edmonton band. This is a free festival with lots of great music and food and beverages. Being such a beautiful summer day we walked downtown through the river valley swilling beers on our 45 minute trek. At Churchill Park we met up with my buddy's Buzzard and Nazz. What was really making this Jr. Gone Wild show special was that on their Facebook page leading up to this show there were some cryptic posts saying this was a must see show and would be epic. Hmmm, interesting, what was this all about. Well a day before the show, lead singer Mike McDonald finally posted on social media saying this would be Jr.'s final show as they were going on hiatus again. What the hell! They had released there latest album Still Got The Jacket in the past year, and is an amazing album, and things seemed to be rolling along quite well for the band. They had recently did a tour in eastern Canada and even did some shows out west. Talking to a couple of the members before and after the show, they had said that it was just time for a break. Not knowing if there would be anymore shows or not. What a shame as this band has been knocking it out of the park as of late. So this was going to be special, but also kind of sad.

Opening the show was Ayla Brook & The Sound Men, a roots/rock band from Edmonton. This would be my second time seeing them play live. I enjoyed there 45 minute set, with the band playing lots of songs from their latest release Desolation Sounds, songs like "(I Think) I Hit My Limit", "Cheap Microphone & An Old Guitar" and "Floated So Far" in which Kimberley MacGregor joined them on stage for this song. She too is a great musician. There were also some older songs from Ayla's album (I Don't Want To Hear Your) Break Up Songs. A great set from these guys. Ayla Brook & The Sound Men.

Now it was time for Jr. Gone Wild. I was expecting a bigger crowd then there was, still a decent turnout, just thought there would be more. Jr. Gone Wild's hour and half long set was excellent. The members of JGW being Mike McDonald on guitar and vocals, Steve Loree on guitar and vocals, Dove on bass and rounded out by Quentin herbert on drums. This was my 15th time seeing the band live. I thought the band sounded amazing as they always do. Lots of new songs from the Still Got The Jacket album and of course some awesome oldies too. Some songs from their album Still Got The Jacket (their first new album in 25 years) performed were "Girl In The Crowd", "Old And Ugly" (my favourite song on the new album), "Barricades", "Cool For My Kids (Good Lookin’ For My Wife)", "Dodge" and "Fly At Night" a Chilliwack cover. A great show and hopefully not their last one. Hopefully after some time off the band will reunite and play together again. Here is hoping so. After the show we met up with another friend and ended up going to River City Revival House under the Starlite Room and swilling more beers until closing time. A very fun night out of music beers and friends. Good times!!! Jr. Gone Wild.

Ayla Brook & The Sound Men at The Works Festival July 2nd 2017

On Sunday I made the trek to downtown Edmonton to catch local band Ayla Brook & The Sound Men play a set as part of The Works Festival. I have seen Ayla play a few times before, solo and with Bombchan but had never seen him with the Sound Men before, so I was looking forward to this. Especially after having bought his new album "(I Don't Want To Hear Your) Break Up Songs" back in December when it was released. A great album has got a lot of play at home and on the headphones.

By the time I got downtown to Sir Winston Churchill Square at noon it was a sweltering hot day, a great day for some cold beers and music. Ayla Brook and The Sound Men hit the stage right at noon, the Sound Men include Ayla of course on guitar and vocals, Johnny Bierot on keyboard and accordion, Sean Brewer on acoustic guitar, Chris Sturwold on drums and rounded out with Brent Oliver on bass.

Their hour long set consisted of lots of songs from the new album, songs such as "Break Up Song", "On Your Right Side", "Gettin' By, By Myself" and "Wasting Time", the band opened the set with an old song "Wake Up Early" from Ayla's 2003 album After The Morning After which was produced by Danny Michel. They play a great blues rock style of music with a little Americana thrown in. Ayla's guitar playing is stellar and some of his slide playing reminds me a bit of JJ Cale. I really enjoyed their set and look forward to seeing them play in a bar setting soon hopefully. All and all good show. Good times!!!

Ayla Brook & The Sound Men.