Blues fans were in their element for Bill Bourne at the Lethbridge Folk Club, Sept. 17.
I caught most of his second set, he had the enraptured crowd eating out of the palm of his hand with a solid, solo acoustic version of crowd favourite “Dance and Celebrate,” which he recorded as part of Bourne and Macleod’s “Dance and Celebrate” Cd back in 1990.
Lost in a mop of long hair, Bourne grinned, told stories and cracked jokes in between playing upbeat blues and folk originals as his knee pumped up and down like a piston, stomping out a rhythm on a microphoned piece of plywood.
When he really wanted to rock it, he brought his son Pat on stage to add tasteful leads and upbeat rhythm guitar, though the elder Bourne showed how adept he was at soloing on his acoustic guitar. He added a couple hot harmonica solos as well on a couple blues standards like “Trouble on My Mind.”
Much of the second set was heavy on music from his excellent new CD “Bluesland.”
Some of the highlights included his “song about farming,” “Maggie’s Farm,” which featured some excellent guitar as Bourne growled and howled the lyrics.
He was called back for an encore of the beautifully picked ballad “On The Sunny Side,” then brought his son back to the stage as he joked his mom used to play this song in a dance band with his dad while he was in her womb. “Her guitar was right next to my head,” Bourne grinned as he bluesified “Columbus Stockade Blues,” which he said was originally a polka.
