The Dead South brought an enthusiastic Lethbridge audience alive at Coyote Joes, Feb. 25. 
You never know what band will bring the inner animal out of a fan, but the Regina bluegrass influenced quartet ( Nate Hilts - Guitar/Vocals, Scott Pringle - Mandolin/Guitar/Backup Vocals, Colton Crawford - Banjo, Danny Kenyon - Cello) did as they had an impressive sized Thursday night crowd in the palms of their hand from the first note they played of their first song “Long Gone.
They barely took a breath as they segued right into “This Little Light of Mine,” which had the audience, already clustered in front of the stage, singing along.
The band looked and sounded like they just climbed down from the peaks of the Appalachian mountains, though they hail from the dry plains of Saskatchewan.
They were reminiscent of a more bluegrass influenced Elliott Brood and with more vocal harmonies. They really appealed to the audience who cheered, hollered and applauded and even sang along.
Meanwhile Nate Hilts and Scott Pringle both broke strings on their instruments, but they kept playing without missing a note or a beat. They exchanged instruments with each other pretty much every song. Danny Kenyon thumped away on his cello, hanging from his neck on a guitar strap, shaking the stage. He used the bow on his cello for a couple of the more bone shaking, sinister numbers.
They played some traditional bluegrass, some newgrass, plenty of songs about whiskey and even introduced a few new songs.
They began at just after 10 p.m. and wound down a sweaty, energetic set around 11:30 p.m.
Unfortunately I missed an opening set from Burning Bridge aka Megan Brown, Steve Foord and special guest George Fowler.
