I only caught a couple of acts at this year’s Rotary Dragon Boat Races, June 25 and 26.
Alyssa McQuaid and her band Coyote Junction played a set of mostly popular pop and country hits and a few of McQuaid’s own songs, June 25.
I haven’t seen McQuaid perform in a while, so it was great to see her on stage again, especially with her talented band including lead guitarist Scott Davidson, rhythm guitarist / vocals - Nick Straat, bassist Reid Siebert, keyboardist/vocalist Nathalie Davidson and drummer Chris Mordon.
They played a variety of hits ranging from the Foo Fighters to Taylor Swift as well as the crowd favourite of Cee Lo Green’s “Forget You.” They also played the Civil Wars’ “Poison and Wine.”
An original “I’ll Be Your Shelter,” featured a nice guitar solo from Davidson, who also shone on their set ending version of Guns N’ Roses’ “Sweet Child O’ Mine.”.
Straat sang a beautiful duet with McQuaid.
Throughout Nathalie Davidson sang subtle vocal harmonies.
It was great to see Lethbridge blues rocker Steve Keenan playing with his band, bassist David Popovich and drummer Darwin Romanchuk, June 26. An older original “Whiskey Drinking Blues,” was an immediate highlight of their set. They played plenty of blues rock classics and a sweet, new countryish original about Keenan’s daughter.
But their set was mostly about the blues.The played a solid version of Kenny Wayne Shepherd’s “ Trouble Is.”
They finished their set with John Fogerty’s “Rocking All Over the World” and ended on a country note with an excellent version of Chris Stapleton’s hit “Nobody To Blame but Me.”