Toronto, Ontario based songwriter Peter Katz decided to let go a little for his long awaited new CD “ We Are the Reckoning.”
“ It took us a long time to make,” Katz  said, loading in for a show in London, England.

 His last studio album was in 2012 and he released a live CD in 2011.

 He brings his new band (pianist Michelle Willis, drummer Benjamin Rollo, bassist Mark McIntire) to Lethbridge to play the Slice, May 6.

“ I tried to take a step back from touring and focus on songwriting and voice. So I sat in a  room with a whole bunch of different songwriters, which was  a new experience for me, and wrote 50  different songs for the CD  and sent them to (producers) Royal Wood and Bill Lefler and let them do what was required. I’m too close to them,” he continued adding he let them decide which songs to put on the CD.
“Being a solo singer songwriter, I’ve always done everything on my own. Now I’m trusting people more,” he continued.

He said there was no conscious theme to the 50 songs or the songs that ended up on the CD.

“A lot of the time you write a song without thinking about it. It just comes out and then you find out what it means. That’s been my process. The meaning reveals itself,” he said adding the CD ended up having a lot of diversity.

Thursday shows can be hit and miss for attendance. While the Lethbridge Folk club was worried about ticket sales for New York blues and  folk musician Guy Davis, they had a decent crowd at an early show at the Lethbridge College Cave, April 23.

 They ended up selling 57 tickets to the awesome show which included obscurities, blues classics and originals.

 I caught the second set which was full of traditional blues, original music,  deadpanned jokes, nimble fingerpicking and a laid back vibe.
 While a lot of blues shows end up being about the solo, Davis’s was all about the song, his gravelly voice and mournful harp. He began the set with a cover of Muddy Waters’ “My Eyes Keep Me In Trouble,” then chuckled as he played “a love song by a black bluesman,” which was  Bob Dylan’s “Lay Lady Lay” while doing a pretty solid imitation of Dylan’s voice.

 He stayed in the love/ lust frame of mind with a quirky original “ The Chocolate Man” which featured a lot of amusing innuendos.
 He followed that up with a medley of “Baby Please Don’t Go” and “Boom Boom Boom,” which had the audience singing along.
He introduced  his song “Liontown” by saying some of  it came from an old bluesman called Hambone Willie Newbern.”

“ If you have a name like Hambone Wille Newbern you  know you have something the world needs to hear,” he rumbled, tapping out a relentless rhythm on the stage with his left boot. A highlight was when he switched guitars to an old 12 string and wandered through the crowd playing a bumblebee themed song by  Amos “Bumblebee Slim” Easton.

 He  seemed willing to play all night, but officially ended his show with blues classic “Going Down Slow,” but stuck around for another half hour to play an encore including  new, moving number called “ I Wish I Hadn’t Stayed Away So Long.” which had the crowd singing along again.

 He played a couple more covers including Tommy Johnson’s “ Cool Drink of Water” which allowed him to use the well worn line “ I asked for water, she brought me gasoline.”
 He ended again with a song including the fitting line “ Even though I love you, I’m going to have to say goodbye.” But returned for another train song “KC Moan” and ended for real with a cover of Blind Lemon Jefferson’s “ See That My Grave is Kept Clean.”

Hamilton rockabilly/ country / blues musician Ginger St. James and her “partner in crime” Slowheel Slim played a rousing set of classic style music  for approximately a dozen people at the Slice, April 23.

 They played three huge set, but I only caught the second, which included several sultry, sassy numbers from Ginger St. James’ new CD  “Diesel and Peas” as well as classic country covers.

 She sang with a  beautiful  twang, and oozed good natured attitude and sass.

 Snowheel Slim played   plenty of twanging Telecaster licks and thumped out a rhythm on a bass drum and snare drum set at his feet.
 She at times channelled Wanda Jackson at times and outlaw country queen Elizabeth Cook at other times.

 She had a pair of couples two stepping to the more upbeat country songs.

“ Please Mr. Driver, one of the more bluesy songs off her new CD was a highlight as was a cover of “Little Red  Wagon,” popularized by Miranda Lambert. she broke up a couple of the more sexy, sassy numbers “Boom Boom Room”  and “ Zipper” with an Ernest Tubbs cover of “ Thanks A Lot.”

 She went really old school country by request and showed off some prodigious yodelling chops on  “I Want to be a Cowboy’s Sweetheart.”

As always , the South Country Fair Songwriting competition is always a popular event for folkies and songwriting aficionados champing at the bit to get to the South Country Fair after a long winter.

 The ninth annual Songwriting Competitions was no exception, April 18 at the Slice, where a full house saw songwriters from Edmonton to Lethbridge competing for cash prizes and the chance to play the South Stage during this year’s fair.

 As opposed to last year, when there were two categories for amateurs and people who have a CD out, all of the  songwriters competed against each other  with South Country Songwriting Fair veterans and former winners  Lethbridge Folk club regular Cathy Hawley winning the $800 first prize for her divorce themed song “ War on the Homefront,” while former Lethbridgians, current Edmontonian Michael Granzow took the second prize of  $400 for “ Answer Back Brother.”

Calgary one man band Rob Lagace and Lethbridge’s George Arsene took home the $200 and $100 third and fourth prizes.

 All of the competitors made it tough for the judges to choose the winner as there were a variety of different musical styles, backing musicians and bands competing.

Beaver Mines songwriter Jolaine Kelley tested the waters, ukulele in hand for  her song “Lotus” to open up the evening. Lethbridge’s  Tyra Whitson played some pretty guitar  on her song “ She.” Another former Lethbridge raised, Edmonton based songwriter Andrew Scott was up next with an upbeat number about alcoholism called “Black Heart.”

 Calgary’s Laurie Fuhr  reminded me of Carolyn Mark as she picked up the tempo with a  catchy Western swing number called “ Break up Blues” featuring some fine fiddling and thumping stand up bass  from Chris Penner and Scott Duncan.