While last week was all about jazz music, the next week is about a whole lot more with a variety of shows ranging from the Centric classical music festival, a lot of rock shows, plenty of roots and much more happening. That’s not even including all of the local talent performing at the Rotary Dragon Boat Festival, June 26-28.

Much of the week is dominated by classical music courtesy of the Centric Music Festival.
 So there will be a variety of Lethbridge performers all week from June 24-28 plus special guests including Mexican pianist / composer Luis  Ramirez, Winnipeg's the Bison Duo and Banff vocalist Heather Jean Jordan performing throughout the week at special concerts, mostly at CASA.

June 26 will be a great night for singing with Southern Alberta talent at the Slice with some of Southern Alberta’s finest roots and country musicians. Dave McCann will be performing along with Claresholm’s Tin and the Toad plus local roots rock act Rancho Deluxe and rock and Tyler Bird’s rock act Queen of the Worms
 The show begins at 9 p.m. sharp. There will be a $10 cover.

The Owl Acoustic Lounge brings back Golden B.C. via New Zealand songwriter Ben Caldwell returns to the Owl Acoustic Lounge with his International folk road show, June 26.

The other big folk show of the week has been cancelled to poor ticket sales. Grand Forks, B.C. French Canadian folk duo Vazzy, were to close off the Lethbridge Folk Club’s season at the Wolf’s Den, June 26. Their new CD has just been nominated for a Western Canadian Music Award for best French Canadian album.
St. Jean Baptiste Day celebrations take place at Pavan Park, June 26. Banff based band the Michael Provencer band will be performing at 6 p.m. There will be fun, games and a beer gardens.

 But there is a whole lot of rock happening well.
Vancouver pop punk band Gob return to Lethbridge on June 26 as well when they play Scores with local band the Youngbloods and Open 24-7. Advance tickets cost $20. The show begins at 9 p.m.

 The big rock show of the week was just announced on the weekend
 Average Joes will be bringing in Michigan rockers Pop Evil, June 25. The show begins at 9:30 p.m. Pop Evil are getting ready to release a new CD “UP’ on Aug 21. They have several radio hits including “Footsteps,”Take It All”, “ Beautiful,”  “ Deal with the Devil and number one hit “ Torn To Pieces.”

Vancouver punk band Gob are excited about their new, long awaited CD Apt. 13. They come to Lethbridge to rock Scores with local band  the Youngbloods and Open 24/7.

 You  can’t keep  the band down as they were forced to find alternate plans after the Tail Creek  Music Festival in Edmonton was cancelled.

“A fan tweeted us and said we could play his back yard if we  brought Bad Religion. The next thing we know we got a tweet from Bad Religion saying ‘tune up your guitars Gob,” said guitarist Theo Goutzinakis.
  They didn’t end up playing the back yard as they ended up booking a gig with Bad Religion  at the Union Hall in Edmonton on June 27.

“Our paths just crossed this time,” he said, adding they are working on booking a tour of  the United States, Europe and possibly Japan.

They are excited about their new self produced CD which was picked up by Toronto record label New Damage.
“ They have a lot of heavier bands, metal bands and punk bands, so we fit right in. And they loved it. They only heard five songs before they said they wanted to be involved. So we appreciated  that. We didn’t want a record company who just wanted another record on their shelves. We wanted someone who wanted us,” he said.

 He said they expanded on their sound a little more as there are acoustic numbers and s three songs with keyboards.
“Tom has played keyboards for a long time. So he’s been chopping up Chopin,” he laughed, adding they haven’t brought any keyboards on tour with them.

There aren’t a lot of  French Canadians in Grand Forks , B.C. but sometimes you never know where life will take you.

 So New Brunswick born  Suzanne LeClerc and her musical partner Bryn Wilkin, originally from Ontario and England, ended up in Grand Forks where they  bonded over their love for Acadian and French Canadian folk music and formed the duo Vazzy. Their June 26  show at the Lethbridge FOlk Club Wolf’s Den has been cancelled due to poor ticket sales.

They just released their second CD “En Passant By The Way” which has already been nominated for a Western Canadian Music Award for Francophone Album of the Year.

“It’s 13 tracks of traditional  instruments and songs. There’s more instrumental songs. And it’s 65 minutes long, ” described  Suzanne LeClerc, who plays harmonica, foot percussion, bodhran, jaw’s harp, spoons, doumbek and tambourine and sings. Bryn Wilkin plays fiddle, tenor  banjo, mandolin, oud, early guitar and bagpipes.
“We released it just in time for the deadline for the Western Canadian Music Awards,” she added.
“ We’re very grateful for the attention,” she continued, adding the nomination will hopefully  get the duo more attention and help them get into bigger folk festivals.

“ There’s more instrumentals. There’s six songs and seven instrumentals  but  the instrumentals are in sets,” she said.
“We play for a lot of  anglophone as well as francophone audiences. So it’s a good idea  to have a mixture of songs. If they understand it, it’s more interesting for them,” she said.

If you didn‘t get enough of New Orleans style piano powered blues, make sure you catch Edmonton musicians Rooster Davis, Ann Vriend and trombonist Brad Shigeta at the Slice, June 25.

 Edmonton pianist Rooster Davies aka David Aide in real life is excited about his latest CD “ For Saints & Sinners.”
“ I got a grant from the AFA so I made the CD of 10 songs,” he said.

It has been about a year since he was last in lethbridge. He has since toured Europe, returning home on March 27.
“I also planted my garden, but I won’t get to see much of it. We’re doing an Alberta  tour and we have to be in Australia in August,” he said.

 They began working on the new CD last October and November, planning to make it sound as close to their live show as they could.

“We recorded 13 songs over two days and kept 10 of them,” he said,
 “We wanted to keep it real simple— the way we’ve been playing live,” he said, noting  they kept  most of the sessions but had to re record  some of the vocals as they were bleeding over into the piano tracks.
 He has been playing with fellow Edmontonian Ann Vriend for seven years, but seriously for the past four years, so they can provide two shows in one.

“That makes it easier to get into festivals. Whether it is an Ann heavy or a Rooster heavy show, they look at it l as ‘if we can get one artist, we can get both,’” he said.

He said  it took some time for him  to work out how a two keyboard act would work between Vriend and himself.
“We decided Hammond organ and piano would work and it grew from there,” he said , noting fitting two 88 key keyboards on stage can be a challenge.

“ They take up a lot of real estate on stage. When we play a place like Mikey’s (Juke Joint in Calgary), they don’t fit on stage,” he said, suggested he may convince Vriend to use a smaller keyboard.
 He noted he hasn’t applied to any festivals this year, but will concentrate on that for next year now he has the CD out.

He said the new CD has received a lot of positive response from  CBC and CKUA but more importantly from the music industry.