by Scott Roos
photos by Scott and Deanna Roos
This past Tuesday, March 28th, music lovers in Prince Albert were treated to a pair of bluegrass sets when award winning, Canadian bluegrass sensations, The Slocan Ramblers took the stage at the EA Rawlinson Centre for the Arts. Cycling through many of their staple original numbers as well as a few well placed and surprising cover tunes along with a handful of bluegrass classics, The Ramblers were on point. They presented as a tight, groovy, energetic, fun and engaging four piece, and the audience lapped up every second of it.
Powered by the groove laden backbeat of bass player Charles James, the mandolin acrobatics of Adrian Gross, melodic musings of guitarist Darryl Poulsen, and incendiary banjo picking of Frank Evans, the group proved this night at the Rawlinson why they are arguably one of the premiere bluegrass outfits in the country right now. Backstopped by the dusty vocals of Evans, the other members also proved to be more than capable of handling vocal duties as well. Collectively, then, the quartet provide variety, musical integrity and a tablespoon of true grit to the proceedings. The result is legitimacy. Plain and simple.
At the end of the day, this year the Rawlinson has proven that their roots game is indeed strong having hosted acts like Over the Moon, Twins Flames, Diyet and the Love Soldiers, and The Misery Mountain Boys already this year to name a few. This Thursday, April 13th they will play host to the International Roots n’ Blues Kitchen Party which will feature Australian blues guitar slinger Lloyd Spiegel as well as Canadian singer-songwriters Suzie Vinnick and Charlie A’Court. This show will also, like pretty much all shows at the Rawlinson, prove to be one that is essential and not to be missed.
Comments