It is always fun when Mercury Audio returns to Lethbridge.

So the Calgary based rockabilly/ country band  including Dylan Sadlier-Brown, Chad Schroter-Gillespie, Thomas Craib and  Tyler Stewart (for a few songs) already had a crowd ready, willing and able to party with a 1950s spirit at the Owl Acoustic Lounge, Feb. 19.

They played a couple of excellent new songs which had more of an alt-country/ Steve Earle feel than their usual set of rockabilly and country classics, though there was plenty of that to be heard.

They played some George Jones, Johnny Burnette and the Rolling Stones “ Out of Time.”

They invited Tyler Stewart on stage to play a few songs as he  has since moved to Lethbridge. The Peter Gunn theme was a highlight of those songs as was a Brian Setzer song  “49 Mercury Blues.”

Sadlier-Brown sounded  like a mix of Bruce Springsteen, the Sadies and Steve Earle in places.

Ed Kowalczyk has grown up with his fans who grew up listening to his former band Live’s sophomore CD “Throwing Copper.”
He never realized how much until he decided to revisit the entire album including popular radio hits like “I Alone,” “All Over You, and “Lightning Crashes.”

He had an acrimonious split from the band in 2009 which resulted in litigation and lawsuits which have since been resolved.

“It has been settled and we’re taking baby steps towards reconciliation. So never say never to a potential project in the future,” he said from his Connecticut home, getting ready for the Canadian leg of the Throwing Copper Unplugged tour, which comes to Average Joes, Monday, March 7.
After the split, Kowalczyk embarked on a solo career that has resulted in two solo CDs and a third that was half completed before he decided to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of “Throwing Copper.”
“I realized it isn’t every day a twentieth anniversary rolls around, but I only wanted to do it if I could do something really unique that really excited me as an artist,” said Kowalczyk, who is as surprised  as anybody that the 20th anniversary acoustic tour for the 1994 album has lasted two years.

He got to work with multi-instrumentalist Zak Loy on new acoustic arrangements and worked with Austin based drummer Ramy Antoun ( who worked with Kowalczkyk on his CD Alive) to design a full multi-media show to go with the new arrangements.
“We took parts of the the videos we already had and looked at the songs that had no videos and came up with images for  them that really went off the grid,” he said, adding the result exceeded his expectations.

“That and more. It was really fulfilling as an artist. And to have people all over the world respond the way they have is the icing on the cake,” he enthused.
“We’ve been doing this for over a year. We’re playing the record from 1 to14. It’s a semi-acoustic show. We’ve developed a full multi-media show. So it has got a lot of depth,” he said.
“It really is a testimonial to the strength of the material,” he continued, adding he along with audiences have grown with the music.
“When I wrote ‘Lightning Crashes,’ I was 22 and I didn’t have any kids, now I have four. And a lot of the audience have kids too, so they find it more relevant,” he said.

The first week of March comes in like a lion this week with several huge shows plus some big auditions for upcoming theatrical productions.
 The two big concert groups in Lethbridge both feature great blues shows this week.
 First up, the Lethbridge  Folk Club brings Toronto born, Calgary based bluesman John Rutherford and the Big Blues Trio to the Cave at Lethbridge College, March 5.  

 Rutherford just won a Calgary Blues Music Association award for best guitar player. Keith Woodrow will be opening the show. Tickets are $25 for Lethbridge Folk Club members with a card and $30 for invited guests. The show begins at 8 p.m.

The Geomatic Attic also features a blues show with Samantha Martin and Delta Sugar paying the attic a visit, March 8.
 Martin received four Maple Blues nominations for her most recent CD Send the Nightingale, but lost to the likes of Colin Linden and Angel Forrest. They play the Attic beginning at 8 p.m., March 8. Tickets are $30.

The Geomatic Attic also features their big annual Southern Alberta Community Living Association (SACLA) Community cabaret, March 5 at the German Canadian Club.

 It features the music of Hippodrome and Metis jigger Roy Pogarzelski.  Tickets are $20 with all proceeds going to support community initiatives with the Southern Alberta Community Living Association.  Doors open at 6:30 p.m. , with the entertainment beginning at 7 p.m. There will even be a taco lunch included.

Toronto based songwriter Samantha Martin has found her musical groove in gospel and blues music.
 She returns to Lethbridge for the first time in two years with her band Delta Sugar to play the Geomatic Attic, March 8.
“The last time I was in Lethbridge was about two years ago and I was competing against a big festival, so don’t remember being a lot of people. We played the Slice and it was a great show though,” she said.

“The Geomatic Attic is more of a listening room though,” she observed.
Since then she has released a new album “ Send the Nightingale” and received four Maple Blues Nominations for it  Best new group, best album producer, best female vocalist and best songwriter.
“ We didn’t win any of them. The Maple Blues awards are nominated by the membership and then it is a fan vote, so it basically becomes a popularity contest. And we were up against people like Colin Linden and Angel Forrest  and people who have been  around for years,” she said, adding the best part of the nominations is the doors they opened.

“We‘ll be back in the summer. We’re playing the Canmore and Edmonton Folk Festivals because of the nominations.  So it really is an honour to just be nominated and there’s always next year,” she said.
She is excited about the new band, which highlights vocals.

“I have the same guitarist as the last time I was here — Mikey McCallum and two singers, Sherie Marshall and Stacy Tabb and drummer Dani Nash. Her name is Danielle but everyone calls her Dani. It’s really Staples Singersish,” she described.