The Lethbridge Folk Club had a superb turnout for a superb show by Edmonton based bluegrass band The Bix Mix Boys, Oct. 13.
I only caught the last half hour of the show, but they were playing authentic bluegrass music. There was some intense mandolin playing, some quick picked banjo and fleet fingered fiddle playing, excellent guitar playing with Jim Storey’s electric bass holding everything together.
Fiddle player Tony Michael was a real ham throughout the show, cracking jokes with guitarist Logan Sarchfield.
Mandolinist Terry Nadashi picked up a fiddle to trade a few fine fiddle licks with Michael. Michael has played fiddle with a plethora of musicians including k.d Lang, Ian Tyson and the Bellamy Brothers, to name just a few. He beamed through his walrus moustache.
Frontman Darcy Whiteside told stories and sang lead on most of the songs though Sarchfield and Nadashi also sang lead on a few. But all three of them sang stunning vocal harmonies, which Michael would also add to on occasion.
They sang a few traditional bluegrass numbers, though Whiteside sang several outstanding originals about Canada and Alberta.
His “Ballad of Bill Miner,” was a highlight as was “Alberta,” which he wrote about his grandfather moving to Carstairs from England, which had everyone cheering mid-way through the song at the line “I wasn’t born here, but I’ll die here. Alberta is my blood and it’s my home. ”
They wound thing s down with a cover of the Good Brothers’ “Fox on The Run.”
But were called back for a mind boggling encore of “The Auctioneer,” which Whiteside said was the first song he learned on banjo at age five. Meanwhile Tony Michael did a hillbilly jig throughout the song. He got to strut his stuff with an instrumental about trains, which encouraged him to create a variety of animal songs on the fiddle during several solo spots.
