A decent sized Thursday night crowd wished Winnipeg blueswoman Romi Mayes a very happy birthday, April 10.
She and the Perpetrators’ Jay Nowicki killed it as usual as they worked through much of Mayes’ repertoire plus some new songs.
They always deserve twice as many people as are there, but the crowd was completely into the duo’s brand of dirty blues rock with just a touch of country.
She “made it easy” to enjoy the show by opening with “ Make it Easy On You,” and followed up with her sassy, sexy originals.
“ Don’t Mess with Me” was a highlight of the first set which included most of my favourite Romi Mayes songs including “The Other Dame,” and the title track of her most recent CD “Lucky Tonight.”
But she also went back to her early albums for some of her more country and bluegrass tinged tunes. “Lord Have Mercy on Me”drew enthusiastic response at the beginning of the show.
She played tender ballads as well as gritty blues rockers as Jay Nowicki added tasteful, mostly finger picked guitar solos.
Her second set was a little more laid back, beginning with a ’60s tinged pop ballad.
She followed it up with “Something’s Going On” and tried to get the audience to sing along.
They picked up the tempo with “Make You Love Me” and the upbeat blues shuffle “ I Can’t Get You Off of My Mind.”
She also played a couple of new songs.
One of my favourites of these was “She Makes a Monkey out of a Man,” which was a more straight ahead rock song. She followed that up by going back to her bluegrass days to plays a rocking version of “ Styx and BTO” and picked up the tempo a little for “Sweet Something Steady.” She was called back for an encore of her touching “Ball and Chain.” from “Lucky Tonight.”
