Slo' and silent

Around the middle of January I popped over to the House of Targ for some countrified action with Slo' Tom and The Handsome Devils and Still Winter Hills. I was glad to finally be able to catch the Hills gang live, since they've been been around for quite a while and I've heard good things. Finally, our schedules coincided. Here's Marc and Shawn (who have appeared before on the blog in a similarly Americana-styled act, The Woodrunners) and drummer Peter (of Starling, also seen backing Trevor Alguire and others).



More Marc and a somewhat blurry Tom Thompson (also Chime of Wrens et al.).



More Tom!



Ben of Orienteers and a slew of other combos also plays guitar in the band.



Percussive action!



More Shawn!



Guest harmonica action with Bérangère!



Extra Marc!



Steely action!



Shawn sings!



More Ben!



Rhythm section action!



More extra Marc!



On to Slo' Tom and The Handsome Devils, entertaining as always!



Tom sings!



Guitar action with John!



Bass action with Rob!



Jon sings!



Rhythm section action!



Devilish action!



Singalong action!



More Jon!



Lap steel action!



Hydrating action!



Booze-bow action!



Slo' Tom and The Handsome Devils, innovators in the onstage alcohol-delivery system field.



Rob sings!



Tom sings some more!



A fun night out.

The bag they're in

Last week I tramped over to Pressed for some instrumental action by Ottawa musical veterans. Steel guitarist Tom Thompson, who has appeared on the blog playing with Orienteers and Trevor Alguire, started things off with his Chime of Wrens project. He uses effects and looping to create some sounds that had me thinking of Roy Montgomery's work.



Steely action!



Whammy bar action!



Chautauqua were on next; they're a rootsy instrumental quartet featuring folks from Golden Famile, Trees of North America, The Reverb Syndicate and Public Animal. They're playing Irene's Sept. 29 as part of the Pretty Bad Records showcase. First up, Mike from Reverb Syndicate and Golden Famile.



Christine of ToNA, Secret Lovers, Johnnies, Chickpea, et. al breaks out the violin!



Guitar action with Darrel (Golden Famile, ToNA, et. al).



Upright action with Eric from Public Animal and Tricky Woo!



More Christine and Eric!



Extra Darrel!



Instrumental action!



More Mike and Christine!



Adjusting action!



A most pleasant night out.