Alex Vissia is looking forward to bringing her band back to the Owl Acoustic Lounge, March 16 to play the Prairie Folk Festival with Spencer Jo and the Wood Sprites.
“It  should be great,” she said, adding she is looking forward to hearing  the Wood Sprites, who she has never heard before, though she knows Spencer Jo.

Vissia just released her  first solo CD “A Lot Less Gold.”

“It’s been received really, really well, though I still have some work to do on it,” she said.

“ I’ll be playing the songs from the new CD again and a couple other rearranged covers,” she said.

“ Eventually I’ll start writing again because I’ll have to put out another album, but for now I’m going to focus on this record,” she said.

Lethbridge is getting ready for the second edition of the Prairie Folk Tournament — three days of alt country, roots and blues from all over Canada playing at two different venues — the Slice and the Owl Acoustic Lounge, March 15- 17.
“ There’s no actual competition, though I guess there is some when the venues are split,” noted organizer Taylor Ackerman, who didn’t just want to do another folk festival.

“We’ve gone to two venues this year, the Owl and the Slice and we’ve added a third day. We wanted to start slow and build it up,” he said.

“The name is supposed to be pretty light hearted. It’s anti hippyish but also hippyish at the same time. ”
 A variety of different acts will be performing including Edmonton singer songwriter Alex Vissia, popular Calgary rollicking roots group Cowpuncher, Saskatoon’s Shuyler Jansen to B.A.  Johnston, who isn’t usually categorized as roots.

“His first two records are very rootsy,” Ackerman observed. There are also several popular local roots groups including Leeroy Stagger,  Shaela Miller and Treeline who will be debuting their new project, Red Rum Triumph and Lethbridge blues rock act Church who have since expanded to a trio.
 There are also new up and comers  including Niagara Falls born singer songwriter Bryson Waind and Tin and Toad, who are a Vulcan band featuring the brothers of the Skilletlikkers’ drummer.

 Vancouver Celtic punk  rock band the Real McKenzies are happy to get you into the Celtic spirit with a show at Bo Diddly’s, March 15 with the Scallywags.
“We’ve got some Scottish bagpipes and two rip-roaring guitars, I’ll be playing saxophone and penny whistle,” said Real McKenzies’ lead singer Paul McKenzie.

“ It’s pretty much a rock and roll show, but we also cover some Robbie Burns,” he continued.
 They will also be playing some music from their new CD “ Westwinds”  which they recorded in Nanton with Steve Loree and will be released March 27.

“We got to know a guy called Steve Loree. He’s a real nice guy. We spent about a month working on it with him,” he continued.
“When we record in the city, we’re easily distracted.  A guy would finish his track and go off to the pub. In Nanton there is nothing to do but record,” he said.
“We’re pretty pleased with it,” he said.

They recently finished another tour of the United Kingdom and even played a couple shows in Russia.
“We played in St. Petersburg and drove to Moscow. It was crazy, man,” he said.
“ And it’s always great to be back in the United Kingdom ” he continued.

The Trews played a hot, hit heavy, high energy at Average, Joes, March 6 which a sold out crowd screamed, cheered and sang along with.
Thunder Bay born, Toronto based indie-rock band The Poor Young Things were up first with a brief set of original, catchy pop tinged indie rock with a lot of vocal harmonies and catchy guitars as the band jumped all over the stage, while the crowd slowly edged closer to the front of the stage, nodding their heads in time to the music by the end of their set.

Thunder Bay born Trews keyboardist Jeff Heisholt, who got them involved with the Trews joined the Poor Young Things on stage for about half of their set.

 But the Trews were who everyone was there to see.
After a brief pipe infused intro, a slideshow of psychedelic images played on the movie screen set above the stage, with different images relating to each song playing throughout the show.

 Their long set was not only chock full of hits but heavy on their new CD “Hope and Ruin.

 The Trews showed they came to rock the joint as they came roaring out of the gate with  their latest  big hit “The World, I Know,” from the new CD and blasted into the huge Govt. Mule tinged riff heavy “People of the Deer,” one of my absolute favourites from the new CD.

But they showed early on that the Trews were “Not Ready to Go,” yet early in the show as they played their first big hit.

Then it was time for the hits past and present.