Calgary based jazz musician Heather Blush is looking forward to playing  South Country Fair’s main stage, on Saturday at 2:50 p.m. July 17
“I really like the environment of the South Country Fair.  The first time,  I didn’t realize how laid back it was,” Blush recalled.

“ And looking at the line up, a lot of my friends are performing this year,” she said.

Blush’s voice is often compared to Norah Jones and Maria Muldaur. With energetic, audience-engaging shows, she is quickly becoming known for songwriting that covers all bases between witty sarcasm and gutwrenching honesty.

“And then there is that great river that everybody jumps into when it gets too hot. last time we played there about five years ago. It was Sunday afternoon concert on the side stage. It was so hot everyone was in the river trying to cool off,” she chuckled adding  she is looking forward to taking in a lot of great music.

If you saw and loved the Hank and Lily Show at the South Country Fair last year or at Henotic during Halloween, it might have piqued your curiosity about what these two characters were like before they met each other.
 So with that in mind, both of them put out solo albums  to explain their characters’ back stories.

“Both Hank and I put out solo albums like the members of Kiss did. I did Lily’s Lullabies: Brightest, Darkest,” sighs Lily Fawn over the phone from Victoria, en route to her day job as a home care worker.
  “ The Hank And Lily albums all come with comics. My solo CD comes with a hard cover fairy tale story.”

She had so much fun at last year’s South Country Fair, that she couldn’t wait to perform again. She is playing at  1:20 p.m. Sunday afternoon.
“It was such an amazing experience last year, I couldn’t wait to come back, so when they said they were looking for performers, I said  ‘hey, look at me, I ’ve  got something new,” she enthuses adding she remembers the heat last year and being able to go in the river.

“I’m a forest creature, so I’m not used to that kind of heat. And I don’t swim in  a fast moving river, but I went into the river and there was always someone to help me when I started to float away,” she chirps adding she enjoyed creating the solo CD and the fairy tale.

Because a good portion of Lethbridge’s music community including both fans and and musicians, will be going up to Fort Macleod for the South Country Fair, it ends up being a pretty slow week for live music in Lethbridge.

However there is one big show happening this week at  Coyote Joes, July 16.
Scottish classic rockers Nazareth will be playing an array of hits like ‘Razamanaz,’ ‘This Flight Tonight,’ ‘Love Hurts,’ and ‘Hair of The Dog.’

The band features  original members , bassist Pete Agnew and lead vocalist  Dan McCafferty with lead guitarist  Jimmy Murrison and drummer Lee Agnew.
Tickets are $40 in advance, $50 at the door. The show starts at 10 p.m.

The Slice is going out with a bang before they close up for South Country Fair, they are bringing in Calgary metal band Kobra and The Lotus, July 14 with local Alexisonfire meets the Foo Fighters inspired rock band Berserker.

Canadian singer/songwriter Fred Eaglesmith  isn’t afraid to explore different musical paths.
“Everybody I know and a lot of my friends are doing alternative country music now, which is what I do. It’s all out of tune vocals and steel guitars, which is my specialty. So I figured we didn’t need another album like that, there are millions of alternative country albums, now,” Eaglesmith said explaining his new CD, Cha Cha Cha which has a Bossa Nova feel.

“It has a great beat and people just want to dance to it. I’ve been listening to Cuban music and samba music for  a long time. So just for fun , I started recording some songs in my studio and played them for a really good friend of mine who loved it,” he continued adding only  a few of the new songs make it into the set list including ‘Careless,’, I Would,’ and ‘Shallow.’

“It’s been a good tour so far, it’s only been 10 days so we aren’t  too beat up yet,” said Eaglesmith on the phone from Nanton, en route to a show in Twin Butte at the Twin Butte Country Store tonight followed by a sold out show at the Slice, tomorrow (July 13).

“People really seem to like the beat,” he added, emphasizing he is not trying to be weird when he records a new CD, he is just exploring different musical and stylistic paths.
“It’s like when your traveling on a road and see another road and decide to explore it,” he said.
“I’m not trying to be different or weird, the music just keeps changing. I’ve been doing this since I was 10-years-old. Sometimes it goes forward, sometimes it goes backwards, sometimes it goes sideways. It’s just a different road,” he continued.