It was a beautiful, though somewhat subdued Sunday, July 20 at South Country Fair, July 20 at the Fort Macleod Fish and Game Park.
Hundreds of people were flaked out or napping in front of the two stages for the afternoon listening to some more excellent music.
I wanted to to catch the Maria Dunn, Declan O’Donovan. Kris Demeanor and Clinton St. John workshop at 12:30 p.m., but just missed it.
O’Donovan had moved over to the East stage to play keyboards with bassist Terri Upton and David Newberry. They played a pretty relaxing set of folk music.
But the energy picked up on the South stage with the Steve Brockley Trio who played an upbeat set of alternative country music including lots of music from their most recent CD “LaBoeuf ” including “Working.”
The main act I wanted to see were the adorable Fort St. John, B.C. folk duo Twin Peaks who heated up the east stage with original folk music, lots of ukuleles and gorgeous vocal harmonies.
“ They played some newer songs and “Second Hand Boyfriend,” about dating in a small town. The quirky a
nd hilarious duo Lindsay Pratt and Naomi Shore cracked jokes and spread good humour in their stage presence and song.
“ Couche Tard (Night Owl) was another highlight which lead to a lot of jokes about mispronouncing French.
Naomi Shore switched to piano for several songs. They would be back to close off the Fair in an excellent workshop with Bend Sinister and Blackberry Wood.
Australia's Kim Churchill was another act I wanted tho see. The one man band creates his own soundscapes on guitar and drums and I heard a bass pedal in there too.
He did some interesting overhand fretboard tapping for a couple songs and told stories of a Australia in between laying down a hypnotic groove.
The Crooked Brothers closed off the east stage with energetic folk/ bluegrass and string band music.
The band members played a frenetic groove and switched instruments on almost every song adding banjo and dobro to stand up bass and mandolin.
The aforementioned workshop featuring Blackberry Wood, Twin Peaks and Bend Sinister couldn’t have a better way to end the South Country Fair 2014.
All three bands took turns leading the stage in a variety of traditional songs.
Blackberry Wood got everybody playing with “Wayfaring Stranger,” while Bend Sinister’s guitarist guitarist Joseph Blood started a jam on John Prine's “Angel of Montgomery.”
Keyboardist Daniel Moxon told a story about blowing out his voice the night before after meeting some truckers who wanted to jam, but sang a CCR song anyway. It was very cool watching Blackberry Wood’s stand up bassist Shannon and Bend Sinister's electric bassist Matt Rhode co-ordinate the bottom end. They melded together well.
Blackberry Wood welcomed High Society's baritone saxophone player Cory Sweet to flush out their horn section.
They will be back in Lethbridge to play the Slice on Wednesday, July 23.
Meanwhile Twin Peaks admitted they weren’t really jammers but put their inimitably whimsical stamp on things by leading the stage through a jam of children's classic “Little Brown Jug” they ended their part of the workshop by rapping.
The Fair officially ended as usual with founder Maureen Chambers and her friends jamming on one last song.
