I did not want to miss the Queen of Vancouver Island, Carolyn Mark and her band's set at the Slice, July 5.
She and her trio including guitarist Joe Fernandez and bassist Dennis Siemens played an excellent set of quirky country music which had a touch of jazz to it.
The always funny Carolyn Mark sounded like a blend of Chrissie Hynde and Kathleen Edwards with a quirky Little Miss Higgins.
She invited Shaela Miller up to the stage to sing several more country songs with her from Mark’s old band the Corn Sisters. They harmonized beautifully together.
I didn’t hear her “Baby Goats song,” but she ended her set with “You're Not a Whore if No-one's Paying” which she noted was about being in the music business.
There wasn’t much of a break between her set and Sarah Burton's set.
The Toronto songstress set up her keyboard quickly with her full band and dominated the stage.
She ran the gamut between older, more popular alt country material and almost all of her new “adult alternative,” piano based jazz tinged CD “Make Your Own Bed.”
She picked up the guitar to play the more alternative country songs and a hot blues song and then exchanged it for the keyboard to play the music off her new CD.
She had a tight band behind her including bassist Victoria Beard from Australian blues band Jungal,who added a lot of meat to her music.
“Great Escape,” was an early highlight of the show.
