They keep getting younger every day.
 Bragg Creek singer/ songwriter and piano player Sarah Troy has four CDs to her credit already and she is only 16.
“I recorded my first CD  when I was 10, but that was only an EP,” said Troy who makes her Lethbridge debut at the Mocha Cabana on Friday, June 3.
 She has a lot of relatives including grandparents in Lethbridge.

“I have a lot of relatives there and it’s going to be awesome, because I have never played for them before,” she said.
 She has been busy playing a variety of events on the weekends including at the University of Calgary, on Thursday, before she comes to Lethbridge
She will be performing with guitarist/ vocalist Aaron Pollock.

“It is going to be awesome. We are working on a variety of things. We have three hours of music, so we have some covers as well, ” she said.

She credits her parents for giving her an early start in the music business.

“My parents have really been nothing but helpful and supportive. They are always pushing me. They give me the loan for a CD and then I pay them back through CD sales,” she said.

“I think it really has been a privilege to be able to do all these things most people don’t get to do until they get older and go to school. But I’m getting all these experiences as a kid,” she said.
 She took up piano at age six and immediately took to it.

“I took some theory. I’ve never really taken lessons. I’ve never taken the Royal Conservatory,” she said.
 She described each CD she has released as a learning experience.

“This is the biggest step I’ve taken. The others were basically baby steps. But I had a lot of faith in these songs, so this is the first one that we recorded in a professional studio with a producer,” she said.

Treeline’s new spilt CD “Prairie Sentimentalist”  with Edmonton’s Sean Brewer of Sean Brewer and the Switchmen is a ‘coming of age’ for the band according to guitarist/frontman Ryan Dyck.

“We got to know him over the past few years,” said Dyck from Medicine Hat.

“We’ve played together a lot over the past 18 months,” he continued.

They will be releasing the CD at a special CD release party at the Slice, June 4 with special guest Cowpuncher as well as pedal steel player Darrek Anderson.
 Tickets are $20 and include a copy of the CD. Advance tickets can be purchased at Blueprint Music.

“He has a lot more experience than me. He was in the Uncas and he’s a guy I always looked up to. So this has been great for me,” Dyck said adding half the songs are Brewer’s and the other half are his. They sent rough tapes to lead guitarist Taylor Ackerman, bassist Tyler Bird and drummer Clayton Smith, who learned them for the record.

“We did them totally apart from each other, so we didn’t attempt co-writing. But I sing a verse on one of his songs,” Dyck said noting they recorded the CD at Riverdale Recorders in Edmonton with producer Scott Franchuk.

When people like Fred Eaglesmith, Todd Snider and Corb Lund speak so highly of Austin’s Hayes Carll, you know he is worth a listen.
 Not only does he put on a hell of a show, but his new ‘CD KMAG YOYO ( And Other American Stories)’  is equal parts Bob Dylan, Todd Snider and a little bit of a countrified Lou Reed.
 I love Carll’s world-wearied yet witty take on the darker side of post 9-11 America.
The CD grabs you from the start with Steve Earle-style upbeat country rocker “Stomp and Holler,” and shows some of his quirky side with “Hard Out Here.”

The title track is inspirational as Carll covers a lot of ground, Bob Dylan “Subterranean Homesick blues” style in just over four minutes telling the story of a young soldier who goes to Afghanistan, decides to make extra money “turning poppies into heroin” then gets caught, ends up as an astronaut or spy and has a lot of other weird things happen to him before deciding to join the Peace Corps. It also features a very cool high octane guitar solo and an unstoppable groove.

 No less inspirational is Carll’s skewed take on a relationship between two very different people on “Another Like You.” It is a duet with Cary Ann Hearst who is no less humourously irreverent and sounds a little like Kellie Pickler.
His wit shines through on slower numbers like “the Letter.”

 Throughout his voice has a distinct Todd Snider timbre to it, with Bob Dylan lyrical flow and Todd Snider wit. Indeed, Snider himself as well as Corb Lung sing vocals on “Bottle In my Hand,” one of the CD’s major highlights. The upbeat tracks like “Loving Cup,”  are the best parts of this CD.

 Musically there are all sorts of things happening from sweet, subdued dobro on “the letter,” to Carll on Banjo on “Bottle In my Hand.”
Carll is more than just a “drunk with a pen” as he sings on “Hard Out Here,” he is a poet and in fact a monster talent who deserves to be heard.

The Magnetic South music festival was a blast and a success. All four venues, Blueprint, the Owl Acoustic Lounge, the Slice and the Tongue N Groove all had steady crowds during the festival’s debut, May 19.

 As promised, there was excellent music and a wide variety.

 Leigh Doerksen and Dan Puurveen aka Church opened things up by entertaining approximately 20 people at Blueprint.

 They played a solid, sometimes psychedelic,  always grooving and often rocking set of Neil Youngish originals.

Montreal’s Silver Dapple was first up at the Owl Acoustic Lounge. They played a fascinating set of loud garage meets modern rock with haunting vocals from lead vocalist Emily.

  They sounded pretty similar, but played a strong set, which sounded like a more stripped down Arcade Fire.

Local band the Ketamines were first up at the Tongue N Groove with a solid set which took the audience into the psychedelic ’60s.
 They played their typically loud and raunchy set full of screeching organ and howling vocals from Paul Lawton, which were often drowned out by the band. They had a  solid groove and a lot of energy. The delay-laden guitar is as much a  cornerstone of their sound as the organ is, and this time they added a tambourine player who was wild, jumping all over the stage and having a blast.

 Over at the Slice Mary-Anne McTrowe and Dan Wong, who are usually known as the quirky art inspired local duo the Cedar Tavern Singers, donned Lone Ranger masks, plugged in and turned up as the Secret Works Progress Administration.

 They put on a very innovative show. McTrowe electrified her ukulele and Wong incorporated a synth app on his iPad which he alternated with an electric guitar.