While Montreal blues musician Cecile Doo -Kingue couldn’t make her show at Plum, Feb 17 after a really bad weekend of her mother passing away and her van getting broken into, her spirit was still soared through the air.

Instead Mwansa Mwansa and Aaron Collier raised $500 for her with a fundraiser at Plum.  There were raffle tickets and much more and lots of music.

Aaron Collier tickled the ivories of his piano while Mwansa Mwansa sat opposite, singing her usual strong set of modern pop and and soul music. As always, I enjoyed her version of Jamiroquai’s ’90s hit “Virtual Insanity” as well as her beautifully soulful cover of  the Zutons/ Amy Winehouse’ hit “Valerie.”

 They also played some newer material including “Waves” by Mr. Probz., which Collier finished by playing a wave sound effect.
 She also sang a stunning version of her favourite song “You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman.”

 Why not celebrate St. Patrick’s day almost exactly a month in advance? The Irish Descendants provided the perfect soundtrack for an early St. Patrick’s Day at Coyote Joes, Feb. 16.

St. John Based The Irish Descendants (frontman Con O’ Brien, fiddle player Patrick Moran fiddle , bouzouki player Ronnie Power and bassist Justin Hickey bass) played a couple of solid sets of authentic Celtic and Newfoundland music.

 They show wasn’t really well promoted, but for a Tuesday night, they had an impressive crowd ready to sit back and party.

There were sociables a plenty as the audience cheered enthusiastically after each song. While most of them weren’t in the mood to dance, though a handful of girls took to the floor by the end of the set.
 They played a variety of traditional Celtic/ Newfoundland classics as well as a  few of their own songs, all designed to showcase the instrumental talents of the band, especially fiddle player Patrick Moran.

 The stripped down set was all acoustic other than a bass amp on stage, so you could clearly hear every note, not to mention all of the outstanding vocal harmonies. Frontman Con O’ Brien was an affable host, raising his glass and shouting “Sociable” every other song. He related some of the history of he more traditional material. They also played a  beautiful version of  Rawlins Cross’ “Colleen” and a rare love song by Stan Rogers.
 But each of the members sang lead for some of the show. Moran, in addition to being a fine fiddle player, showed he had a gorgeous, lilting tenor voice.

 Their second set featured familiar fare including “I’se the B’y” which had the audience singing along.

They played an excellent cover of  Steve Earle’s “Galway Girl” which was a treat as Moran’s other band the Punters do a wicked version of it. That brought the set to a rollicking close, after showing off their fantastic vocals on an a cappella version of “ Barrett’s Privateers” which also had the audience singing along.

But they returned for an encore featuring a toe tapping set of traditional Irish jigs performed by Moran. The show started early, so everything was wrapped up before 10 p.m.

 I was supposed to be helping down Playgoers of Lethbridge’s set for their production of Boeing, Boeing, which ended, Feb. 13, so I only caught a couple of  the gigs happening on Saturday night.

 CKXU was on CKXU time for their annual Valentine’s Day extravaganza at the Slice, Feb. 13.

That meant only one band had played by the time I got there around 10:30 as the Mormon Girls were setting up in between draws, door prizes and even a Valentines Day pinata. So I ended up missing them.

The theme of the light was the ’50s, so a variety of bands were performing, including the Mormon Girls and Shaela Miller (who was playing ’50s country, though I unfortunately missed her) and a new Jackson Tiefenbach band who were playing straight ahead ’50s rock and roll, rockabilly, some surf music and some Link Wray.

 After that Sean Warkentin and Lauren Crazy Bull set up a variety of computers and effects units for a set of electronic music based on ’50s pop music programmed into Warkentin’s laptop.

I checked out a surprise performance from Medicine Hat musician Jay Bowcott at the  Owl Acoustic Lounge, Feb. 13 but caught him on a set break.

But when he returned to the stage, he and lead guitarist Brady Enslen played a variety of country, alt country and roots musician including an exceptional version of Steve Earle’s celtic song “Galway Girl.”

 Bowcott strummed his guitar and snag while accompanying himself on an almost a full drum kit, with a sound that filled the ears of the 30 or so people at the Owl Acoustic Lounge.