Toney Springer, aka Wild T and his band the Spirit return to Lethbridge, July 1
0 to play the Slice.
“We’ll be doing the same thing, only better,” said Springer from Edmonton where he is helping long time blues and music venue Blues on Whyte celebrate their 102 birthday with a four day long residency.
“It is one of the only venues left in North America offering live music seven days a week from Sunday to Sunday.That’s how it used to be back in the day, everybody was doing that but it has tapered off,” Springer observed.
He is looking forward to returning to Lethbridge to play the Slice.
Wild T and the Spirit are well known for their live shows full of plenty of guitar, lots of blues, jams and reinterpretations of classic blues and especially Springer's take on Jimi Hendrix.
“ Usually we play there on a Sunday, which is weird. But my mama told me people like to party in Lethbridge. So maybe Thursday is the new Friday,” Springer quipped.
“ and the lovely Jolene Draper is opening for us again,” he said. Draper, Steve Martin and Dano, who have dubbed themselves Tangible Radiance will be opening the show with acoustic folk music.
He is also excited to have drummer Trevor “T-Bone” Bingham on board.
“ He has been with us for three years. We’d fly out to Edmonton and hire him and he’d be with us from Winnipeg to Sault Ste Marie,” he said
“T-Bone is a great fit. over the past years the drummer has been the hot seat of the band. They‘d come and play with us for maybe a year and move on to other things. But we’re playing better as a unit. better than ever before,” he continued.
“ And this guy sings like an angel so we’re like a three piece harmony band,” he added.
He has also been working on new music some of which he will play in Lethbridge. When they record, he hopes Bingham will be involved.
“ Hopefully. He's fitting in well. We may fly him out to Toronto,” he said adding he is still in the process of writing new songs before going into the studio.
“We never really just want enough songs for an album. We want five or six or 10 more than we need,” he said.
Wild T and the Spirit are popular in Europe, but don’t plan on returning there until they have a new CD.
“ We won’t go back there until we have new product,” he said.
“ Besides, we don’t want to go there during the World Cup. because everyone is a little distracted,” he said.
“ I remember playing Amsterdam during the World Cup and the national colour is orange, so we'd go there and we'd be looking over a sea of orange. People were celebrating and people were pretty drunk by the time we played. Even though not everyone is a soccer fan,” he recalled.
He is excited to return to Lethbridge.
“ We’re looking forward to it. We love playing for you people at the Slice and we love Jesse and Tyler.”
There is a $10 cover for the July 10 show which will begin at 9:30 p.m.
Tangible Radiance will be opening.
