A trimmed down Geomatic Attic summer blast -off was still a success, June 20.
Due to flooding fears, the Deep Dark Woods and Frontier Ruckus were stranded in Canmore and couldn’t make it to Lethbridge. Shaela Miller was also dropped from the bill. Because of the weather, the popular spring fundraiser for the YWCA Harbour House was also moved indoors to the Geomatic Attic instead of outside as it usually is. The Kinsmen held their barbecue in the Geomatic Attic garage, sheltered from the rain. Karen Romanchuk entertained a small but mighty crowd with her band t
o begin the show.
She had originally been dropped from the bill as well. Vancouver rockabilly trio Cousin Harley, who made it in from Golden, B.C. just before the roads were closed, held court with a lot of good humour and hot rockabilly licks to the delight of the enthusiastic audience.
After some delay, Karen Romanchuk and her band including lead guitarist Jason Eveleigh, drummer Darwin Romanchuk and bassist Alex Thomson played a tight set of Karen Romanchuk’s originals including the rockabilly flavoured “Blue, Blue Heart” She also played some newer songs as well as a smooth cover of the old blues song “ Walking by Myself,” which she said the first time she heard it was Suzie Vinnick singing it at the Geomatic Attic.
She also did a capable cover of Steve Earle’s “Someday.”
Cousin Harley brought smiles and cheers from a lot of people with a no holds barred, energetic set of classic rockabilly inspired music. Guitarist/ lead singer Paul Pigat showed the audience how it was done. Stand up bassist Keith Picot was into the music, grooving and mugging for the audience as Pigat dedicated an instrumental off their brand new album to the “ever so swarthy” Keith Picot.
Original Cousin Harley drummer Steve Taylor held everything together.
He played an old, politically incorrect Merle Travis song “Big Fat Gal of Mine.”
“ If things get rough and times get hard, I’m going to render my gal and sell the lard— you can’t write a lyric like that anymore. But I didn’t write it, but I can play it,” Pigat chuckled. He played plenty of hot ear piercing guitar licks while the band grooved. I had to hit another couple gigs as he began a beautiful instrumental version of “Mr. Sandman.”
