It seems like Lethbridge spent a lot of the year covered in either snow, which didn’t leave until April or smoke, which dominated the summer, or surrounded by howling wind, but it was still an exceptional year for live music in the city. On a sad note, CKXU’s Love and Records festival took a break from Galt Gardens this year due to volunteer burnout and the staff being focused on getting the new 2,900 watt transmitter operational, which happened at the beginning of December.
University of Lethbridge based radio station CKXU 88.3 f.m.’s new transmitter was a major highlight for those people looking for music you can’t hear anywhere else.

This year, lots of excellent live music came to the Slice, Owl Acoustic Lounge and Average Joes and the Smokehouse, to name a few. There were lots of afternoon shows this year including the LGRC family jam at the Owl  who also hosted The Folk Road show for a matinee during the summer and other assorted afternoon shows.  The Smokehouse also started a matinee series featuring folk and roots music.

Blueprint Records also closed after 12 years supporting the local scene. Before handing the torch over to new owners Street Legal Records, they held a big farewell bash at the Slice, June 1 featuring lots of local acts Biloxi Parish, Sparkle Blood, Open Channels and Mombod. The next night Street Legal held a grand opening bash featuring rap and hip hop.
The Geomatic Attic had an excellent season full of blues with shows from Steve Dawson, Dawson playing with Kat Danser as well as Birds of Chicago and Joey Landreth, Nov. 25 who was also a hit opening for the Sheepdogs at Whoop Up Days. MonkeyJunk returned to the Geomatic Attic to slay on May 24. They had an excellent run of shows in May,  featuring a beautiful show of folk with Fionn and Royal Wood, May. 22. Earlier in the year, they had the White Buffalo, March 6. He is best known for writing several songs for the TV Show Sons of Anarchy, and Tri-Continental brought their cross-cultural music right before that.
Honker’s Pub celebrated 21 years with a lot of live music on March 17.

 The Enmax Centre had a lot of big shows  this year including Shinedown, Johnny Reid and a lot more but I only made it to George Thorogood and the Destroyers, who rocked the joint,  May 5.
 There were also several alternative rock shows this year downstairs in the old Firehall hosted by the Terrific Kids Collective, who held shows for Halloween and other shows throughout the year.
As always there are new bands forming and playing, it seems every day. Some of the highlights this year were up and comers Hoverkraft, Gabe Thaine in his many incarnations like the Crooked Creek Warblers or solo, Silkstones and Biloxi Parish.

New albums came from a variety of local bands and musicians including J Blissette, Body Lens, Gabe Thaine’s “Alone in This World.” In Cahoots, Cope, MTBC,Shaela Miller who had a great year participating in the project Wild. She released her new CD “Bad Ideas.”, Paul Kype also released a new CD with Chilliwack drummer Jerry Adolphe called “Blues For Rosie.” Other new local Cds included The Utilities, Mind Merge with Craig Baceda and Chris Snelgrove and John Wort Hannam’s “Acres of “Elbow Room.” Jesse and the Dandelions, who is based out of Edmonton, but spent his formative playing years here also released a new CD “Give Up the Gold.”

I have a pretty eclectic taste in music. I listen to bands even hipsters haven’t heard of, I know this for a fact because pretty much nobody recognized any of the bands I was irritating people with by raving about over the past couple months leading up to my voyage on the Norwegian Pearl for the Outlaw Country Cruise 3, Jan. 21-26.

Some of my favourite bands barely ever play Canada and are never played on modern radio but were playing the Outlaw Country Cruise 3 sponsored by the Outlaw country station on Sirius XM. While the station plays your usual diet of Merle Haggard, David Allan Coe, Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash, they also play a lot of up and coming “outlaw country ” musicians, Southern rock, punk rock and cow punk , roots rock , alt country and other music that just doesn’t fit in, so the bands on the bill reflected that diversity.

 Some people recognized Steve Earle and the Cuban influenced country band the Mavericks, who were the “headliners” on this bucket list cruise which was basically a gigantic music festival taking place on six stages on three different levels of a monster cruise ship sailing from New Orleans to Costa Maya, Mexico.
A couple people vaguely remembered the Bottle Rockets, Jason and the Scorchers and Blackberry Smoke because they heard them on my shows on CKXU 88.3 f.m.

But what made me feel pretty old is the younger people I talked to who didn’t recognize Texas born, New York based “hardcore troubadour”  Steve Earle, who played a special 30th anniversary concert of his album “Copperhead Road.”

And even though Steve was the headliner and playing numerous times (and for the most part completely different shows) during the week like most of the artists, I only caught bits and pieces of his shows including the Copperhead Road show, because they were competing with other bands I really want to see who rarely, if ever, tour Canada. And I know Steve would put on a great show because I’ve seen him play here. He was one of many Texas musicians playing on the ship. I got to sit in on a couple of Outlaw country broadcasts including Steve Earle swapping stories about dearly departed Guy Clark and Nashville in the early ’70s.

I also got to see an excellent workshop featuring Steve Earle, Rodney Crowell, Ray Wylie Hubbard and Lucinda Williams swapping songs and telling stories, which was excellent and kept my attention off the floating city being blown back and forth by 50 knot (approximately 100 km/ hour) gale force winds, which while I may be used to them in Lethbridge, is a little disconcerting in the middle of the Caribbean Sea.

 Usually I’m in the front row, right next to the stage for almost every show that comes to Lethbridge, making pictures and taking notes in the endless quest to let people know that there is a whole world of great music just waiting for you discover beyond the banality of modern Top 40 radio, so it was weird to just be part of the masses just sitting back and watching the show.

Other than the Bottle Rockets, even I stayed at the back of the room, and barely took any pictures, not wanting to pack a telephoto lens (which were “not allowed” though some people brought them).

It was a weird unsettling feeling, but the trip of a lifetime — like I said bucket list.

 Every morning, they crew would deliver a schedule of cheerful welcome brochures and portable schedules of all the fun planned for the day which you could carry around on a lanyard along with your cabin key which you’d have to use to get drinks and of course get into your room,  to choose the shows you wanted to see and the pieces of shows you could catch if they were competing with each other.

Fortunately the stages weren’t that far apart, so it was easy to catch a little bit of everything.

As always, I went to a lot of  shows this year, yet not as many as I would have liked due to other commitments like family and theatre. Here are some of my favourites by the month.
January
 Jan. 6 —One of last shows at all ages venue Attainable Records  and the last show for local punk / alternative rock trio Advertisement raising money for Lethbridge Shelter.
 Jan. 14— The Lethbridge Folk Club always brings in some excellent acts. It is always great to see Canadiana troubadour Tim Hus as we did when he played the Lethbridge College Cave for the Lethbridge Folk Club
 Jan 20— Calgary country singer Tom Phillips played a sold out show at the Slice  country music at a sold out Slice
Jan 21— One of my new favourites, Edmonton musician Kimberley MacGregor played several shows this year including one of several songwriters in the round. She played the Owl Acoustic Lounge with the Silkstones, Elliott Thomas and Burning Bridge.
 Jan. 21—Local metal band Tyrants of Chaos, who would sell out the Slice in December, almost sold out the Slice along with  Outrun the Arrow and Extrados
Jan. 26— Michael Bernard Fitzgerald played sold out solo show at Geomatic Attic. he’d return later in the year for a sold out show at the Slice with a full band.
Jan. 28— Edmonton based, Newfoundland born celtic rock band the Derina Harvey band rocked the Slice Celtic style with upbeat  Celtic rock music. They return to the Slice this January.

February
 Feb. 4— Scott Cook played one of many excellent Lethbridge Folk Club shows in support of his new CD
 Feb. 8— Boots and the Hoots playing one of many excellent Windy City Opry shows at the Slice.
Feb. 10— The Owl Acoustic lounge started adding spice to their Monday open mics with touring hosts,   this time with Kayla Luky and Rotary Park hosting.
Feb. 11— Local rock band Outrun the Arrow’ took over the Slice for a video shoot for their song “the Middle.”  
Feb. 18—There were lots of laughs with comedian Tom Green at  Studio 54.
Feb. 19 — As usual, this year featured lots of classic rock.  Loverboy was to play the Enmax later in the year, but Honeymoon Suite rocked Average Joes on a Sunday night.
 Feb. 20— Elkford blues rock band The Burn Ins  rocked the Owl Acoustic lounge in support of their new CD
Feb. 21— Moose Jaw singer songwriter Megan Nash made the first of several visits to Lethbridge at the Owl Acoustic Lounge
Feb. 25— Folk punk band Audio/Rocketry returned to the Slice. Joe Vickers from the band would later play a solo show at the Slice later in the year.
Feb. 26— Austin via Halifax and Austin blues band The 24th Street Wailers made their Lethbridge debut at the Geomatic Attic, playing one of three great Southern Alberta shows.

March
March 7— There was a great rock show with Montreal’s Dany Laj and the Looks with the Dirti Speshuls at the Slice.
 March 8— Old Man Luedecke ,brandishing his banjo , gave Lethbridge another chance  as he returned to the Slice to play for an attentive audience.
March 16—The Andrea Superstein Trio played beautiful jazz at Geomatic Attic
March 16  — The annual pre-St. Patrick’s Day party with the Real McKenzies is always  a highlight of the year and definitely March. This year they brought baseball punk band the Isotopes to Average Joes.
March 21— Multi-instrumentalist Ben Caplan visited the Geomatic Attic for sold out show.
March 23— Central B.C blues rock trio Devon Coyote made a long awaited return to the Owl with a new CD.
March 30— Winnipeg grunge/metal band Solhouds featuring Elise Roller of Go For the Eyes rocked The Owl Acoustic lounge.

April
April 6— Vancouver based indie rock band  Yukon Blonde played a sold out show at Average Joes
 April 13 — Calgary rock band Cowpuncher played one of their last shows at the Slice
 April 18—  Hamilton funnyman BA Johnston played one of three great shows at the Owl Acoustic lounge in support of his new CD Gremlins 3
 April 21 — Locomotive Ghost played one of several excellent modern indies rock shows at the Slice.
 April 25 — A great candidate for best pop show nobody saw Matinee and Fast Romantics at the Slice
April 25  — Juno award winning bluesman and harp master Paul Redidck finally got a sold out crowd in Lethbridge with a show at the Geomatic Attic, April 25 with MonkeyJunk’s Steve Marriner
April 28 — The Best roots/ folk show of the year in a year full of them was the long awaited return / reunion of Winnipeg Bluegrass/ punk band the D-Rangers who I’ve been following since they formed in Winnipeg/ Kenora back in the day and who took a seven year break. They tore up the Slice with uptempo punk tinged bluegrass music.
April 29 — Petunia played one of many great shows in Lethbridge including New Year’s Eve at the Slice and again on April 29 this time as a duo with Nathan Godfrey

May
 May 3— Calgary Celtic punk band the  River Jacks played one of several excellent punk shows at the Moose hall
 May 4 — Elliott Brood returned for a packed show at Average Joes.
 May 5 — Another great show nobody saw was Vancouver rock/ folk musician with Rodney DeCroo and his band at the Slice.
May 6— The best blues show everyone missed was Danny Brooks at Slice.
May 7 — South Country Fair songwriting competition was back this year and proved to be a touch decision for the judges who decided on winner Carter Felker who played a number of excellent local shows
 May 11— Another great show from Edmonton’s Kimberley MacGregor and Elliott Thomas at the owl Acoustic lounge.
May 11 — New Jersey punk rock veterans Hudson Falcons played an excellent show at the Moose hall with Streetlight Saints
May 12— Edmonton blues rock band  the Boogie Patrol always entertain as they did at the Slice in support of CD Man on Fire.
May 13— Eamon McGrath and his band played an intense show of folk punk at Owl Acoustic lounge
May 14  — Average Joes continued a successful run of Sunday night shows with country star George Canyon Average Joes.
May 17 Canadian Celtic punk veterans Mahones made long awaited return to the Slice in support of their anniversary CDs “The Hunger and the Fight part One and Two).

June
June 3 — Lethbridge said farewell to talented local singer Mwansa Mwansa who left for Toronto.
June 3 — Megan Nash returned to the Owl Acoustic lounge with Bears in Hazenmore. It was great to hear her backed by a band.
June 3— Calgary pop punk veterans Downway returned to Lethbridge to play the Moose Hall.
 June 8 — Calgary surf rock band the 427s played a trippy show at the Slice backed by a multi-media show as the background to their addictive surf rock
 June 9 —Lethbridge Girls Rock Camp band swap is always a fun event as local musicians mirror Lethbridge the Girls Rock Camp milieu by forming a band, writing a song and playing their first gig in a week.
June 14 — Northern Ontario, ukulele powered duo Twin Peaks returned to Owl for another excellent show.
 June 16— Kimberley MacGregor played another outstanding shows  at the Owl, June 16 with John Guliak, Levi Cuss and Curtis Phagoo
June 16 — It was great to hear Manotick based rock band Hollerado play a smaller venue again as they played a close to sold out show at the Slice.
 June 17 — Jazzfest is always a highlight of June. While I missed Colin James at the Enmax Centre, I caught Rooster Davis  and Ann Vriend at the Owl, June 17.
June 21— The Owl Acoustic Lounge hosted several Pride week events including  an excellent show with pop punk band Jock Tears and Supermoon
 June 24—Prism play the hits at Average Joes in another excellent regular classic rock show.
 June 23-25 —Rotary Dragon Boat Races featured plenty of local  musicians playing in sweltering heat.
 June 28 — The always fun Matadors played their usual entertaining psychobilly show at the Moose Hall. To add to their devil rock mystique, they added a red clad devil figure overseeing the show in the background.
June 28  —the Way Down Wanderers an amazing young bluegrass band from Chicago tore up the Slice in one of several fantastic roots shows at the Slice this year.
Twinning celebrations Nikka Yuko Japanese Gardens but I unfortunately missed it and the Amanda Marshall concert at the Enmax which they sponsored.
 June 30 —Taylor Ackerman returned for a visit with new music with Global Acid Reset, June. 30 at the Slice

Once again, we appear to be living in interesting times.  To reference an old movie, It has been a year fraught with eminent peril — wildfires, floods, smoke, terror,earthquakes, unseasonable weather and overall ugliness.

 Once again, we lost many of our musical icons including Chuck Berry, Tom Petty, Gord Downie, Gregg Allman, Chris Cornell,Fats Domino, Mel Tillis, Malcolm Young and Glen Campbell and Don Williams just to name a few. It has been an interesting one to say the least.
 The troubles of world be damned, there was plenty of good news on the local scene.There were a cornucopia of great shows, fundraisers and lots of new CDs from local artists including Trevor Panczak,  Silkstones, Atomicos, Groove Apostles, Cope, Junkman’s Quire, New Weather Machine and Skinny Dyck’s twenty one nighters compilations plus Tin and the Toad, to name only a few.
 Leeroy Stagger released an excellent new album, “Love Versus,” and started the Dirty Windshields Radio hour on CKUA.

 Canada celebrated 150 years and both Lethbridge College and The University of Lethbridge celebrated milestone years with festivals.

Among the many highlights of the year, Shaela Miller’s concert series the Windy City Opry celebrated a successful year. She also entered the Story Hive video competition in April. She recently competition had a successful crowd funding campaign for her upcoming new CD “Bad Ideas” which is due out early 2018.