I always look forward to seeing Canadian legend Ken Hamm play, but unfortunately missed his solo set at the Slice, Oct. 20, however I was 
suitably impressed by author and musician Sid Marty.
He played laid back folk music and told stories in his hypnotic baritone.
I arrived in the middle of his set, during which he had said he “ There are so many good song songs there, so you don’t have to write any,” which he prefaces by playing a couple covers like Fred Neil’s “Little Bit of Rain.”
He played some acoustic slide guitar then switched things up on the electric, then a Mandobird — an electric four string guitar. Ken Hamm then joined him on stage to add some dobro to the mandobird and on a song about chainsaws, then another about real cowboys, which really illustrated Marty’s storytelling abilities. Another song near the end of his set was a whimsical look at laid back British Colombians compared to hurried, money focused Albertans.
They were called back for an encore of “Blackeyed Suzie,” which Marty brought out a cheap lap steel guitar “from the old days where you could place an order from the Hudson’s Bay or Sears catalogue and get a decent sounding instrument and turn yourself into a rock star.
