There is no shortage of venues in Lethbridge for live music now, unfortunately attendance is starting to falter for the Lethbridge Folk Club, who have an outstanding winter / spring season planned featuring mostly newcomers to the Wolf’s Den.
“We’re starting to spend the surplus we have built up over the past few years,” observed Lethbridge Folk Club President Morris Soenen.
In addition to open mics on the second and fourth Fridays of each month beginning at 8 p.m., and bluegrass jams on the first and third Fridays of each month beginning at 7:30 p.m., they average one big show a month.
The next show is Vancouver based singer/ songwriter Lowry Olafson, who plays Dec. 3, with opening act Maureen Chambers.
Olafson is looking forward to being in Lethbridge, not only playing the Wolf’s Den, but also working in the schools.
I’m pretty much a folk musician. I play finger-style guitar. It’s pretty eclectic. I play a wide range of stuff. I have a lot of different influences,” Olafson said noting he recently played with the Good Lovelies.
The intricate finger-style guitar player has not only released nine albums, but also has a special program where he works in schools teaching children about songwriting in his program “From the Page to the Stage in One Day.
“I’ll be working in four or five schools in Lethbridge,” he said. He has brought the program to Dr. Probe Elementary School and Westminster Elementary Schools in the spring and will be working in Galbraith and Agnes Davidson before his Lethbridge show.
He leads the students though the songwriting process. In a three hour session they write and record the song onto a CD which stays with the school and can be used on their website as well as Olafson’s.
But he is looking forward to playing solo at the folk club.
“I’m touring by myself. And because I’m playing finger-style, there is enough happening musically, that I can fill in the holes,” he said.
Back Porch Swing play the Lethbridge Folk Club, Jan. 14.
“They are from Edmonton, Penny and Jim Malmburg. They play bluegrass and swing music,” he said. They played the Folk Club back in 2005. They will be followed by the Sultans of String , Feb. 11.
“They (Sultans of String) are an all instrumental group who play all kinds of music. They’re pretty hard to describe,” he said.
Andrew and Zachary Smith play March 24.
The Willy Blizzard Band plays April 21 with special guest Jean Greer-McCarthy.
“They played the Slice though nobody was there to see them other than Wayne (Hales, vice president) and me and the staff,” he said.
As Fish an Bird had a scheduling conflict, Lethbridge Folk Club favourite , bluesman Tim Williams returns May 12, with Fish and Bird finishing the season, June 2.
While the Folk Club is doing their best to draw bigger audiences, that isn’t why the new season mostly features Folk club newcomers.
“It would be nice if we could get more people,” Soenen said.
“We only had 16 paid people for Brock Zeman ( Nov. 12) But even Bill Bourne wasn’t a sell out (Sept. 17) and he should have been,” Soenen said.
He noted other venues like the Geomatic Attic are bringing in acts geared to the same demographic.
“Even the Owl is bringing in touring acts mid -week and they were going to focus on local acts,” he continued, stressing he wants to keep ticket prices as inexpensive as possible— $20 for most shows for members, $25 for non-members, which includes the five dollar membership fee.
“ I got an e-mail from Tom Wilson from Blackie and the Rodeo Kings and didn’t even return it because I know that would be a $3,000 show and they are three high profile musicians — Tom Wilson, Colin Linden and Stephen Fearing. We want to keep our ticket prices reasonable,” he said.
