The Owl Acoustic Lounge had a surprisingly good and well deserved turnout for Edmonton soul and blues siren Kimberley MacGregor, considering they were competing with Shaela Miller and Ryan Dyck’s wedding which drew most of the blues and roots music listening community.
I missed an opening set from Megan Brown, but arrived in time to catch an exceptional set from Calgary musician Sean Hamilton, who plays with a variety of different Calgary bands. This time he was wearing his folk hat, so accompanied himself on guitar while singing earnest, upbeat folk and roots music. A song about the “honeymoon phase“ of a relationship, three months into it was a highlight as was a peppy love song called “ Dear Laura.”
He added a harp solo near the end of the set and finished things off by showing his multi-instrumental prowess by borrowing Kimberley MacGregor band’s drum set to simultaneously sing, play guitar and play the drums.
The Kimberley MacGregor band were as impressive as I thought.
They featured the Edmonton based songstress’s raw, powerhouse vocals reminiscent of Rita Chiarelli, Angel Forrest and a touch of Janis Joplin and Susan Tedeschi.
They started off slowly with “I’m Not Here,” from her most recent CD “ I Am my Own” but her tight rhythm section, drummer Geoffrey Hamdon-O’Brien and bassist Melissa Walker, (Of Two Bears North and Scott Cook’s band), locked in immediately with MacGregor’s rhythm guitar as lap steel guitarist Nathan Burns added haunting solos.
She played a brand new song “120 Seconds” after that.
They had a massive groove and MacGregor’s huge voice soared through the room.
While most of her set was original material, she added a revamped version of a Tom Waits’ “Hoist the Rag,” and invited the audience to guess who sang it, saying she would buy the winner a shot.
She followed that up with “a song about poo” about people who “talk shit about other people.”
She ended with “Trouble” from the most recent CD.
