Hamilton singer songwriter Pat Maloney returned to the Owl Acoustic Lounge, Saturday, Aug. 12 for a handful of people. I arrived in the middle of an extended set break and an almost empty room, which quickly started to fill, as Maloney began his second set with country classic “King of the Road.”
Most of the rest of the set was newer songs inspired by his adventures taking advantage of Kijiji ride shares.
So Maloney told stories and sang songs in his mellifluous baritone reminiscent of Tom Wilson of Junkhouse and Blackie and the Rodeo Kings. about some of the eccentric individuals he met in his travels.
An immediate highlight “Going to meet my baby” about a released convict driving to the Okanagan to meet his new daughter who was born while he was incarcerated.
Maloney accompanied himself on guitar and had a separate microphone set up for him to whistle beautiful whistle solos into.
Just to be different, he turned the Cars’ 1978 pop hit “Just What I Needed,” into an impressive folk song, whilst whistling the catchy synth hook into his second microphone.
He sang other, slightly more political songs about “trying to just get along” as well.
One of these called “I’m a unicorn” put a more trippy twist on that theme.
He wound up his set by putting his own stamp in Vancouver based accordion wielding punk Geoff Berner’ “ Volcano God,” and noted he wasn’t sure how well it would go over in the “Bible belt.’
He put his own mark on a couple covers including Joel Plaskett’s “Pine, Pine, Pine,” plus “Dang Me,” for which he provided a pretty capable yodel and John Prine’s “In Spite of Ourselves” into his own songs.
