April snowstorms are ugly, but that didn’t stop a good sized audience from going out April 16 to check out Hashmagandy
at the Lethbridge Folk Club’s Wolf’s Den.
The Calgary based trio including Toni Vere, bassist Amy Bishop and lead guitarist Carla Olive backed by drummer Bill Nordrick blended an array of styles of music. Each took turns singing lead, with Bishop adding lot of high powered soul and R and B while Olive added a touch of indie rock.
Vere’s songs leaned more towards the country -rock side of the spectrum. Throughout, they added beautiful vocal harmonies to each others’ songs.
Olive beamed ear-to-ear as she played tasteful, delay drenched solos.
The group began with their song “Hashmagandy,” and traded lead vocals from there. Bishop’s voice was a highlight, belting out her soulful originals. Olive had the audience singing along with one of her songs. Vere sang a touching version of “Levi-Strauss.”
Bishop followed that up with an upbeat song about drinking called “Friday Again” which had everybody cheering.
Olive’s songs were pretty inspirational as well with one about the end of the world and an energetic song about chasing your dreams called “Too Late to Give Up Now.”
They ended their first set with my favourite “ I’m Gonna be On Ellen,” which hasn’t been on a CD yet, though it is available as a single.
