The Stettler Variety Showcase continued with two Canadian acts putting on a show at the Performing Arts Centre on Sunday.
There was almost a full house for singer/songwriter Leela Gilday and country/rock band The T. Buckley Trio.
Yellowknife resident Leela Gilday started the afternoon with an a cappella Dene prayer of thanks. Though she is sometimes accompanied by a band, on Sunday she was accompanied only by an acoustic guitar. Her music has a folk sound, and was heavily influenced by her northern upbringing. One of her songs was based on a Dene story and had a Dene-language chorus.
She has a powerful voice and was able to keep control over it, whether she was belting out the words or softly singing without playing her guitar. More than anything, she looked like she was having a lot of fun onstage.
Her performance was interspersed with funny stories and personable small talk, although there was one moment when she was tuning her guitar and had a bit of trouble trying to fill the silence.
“This is one of those moments when I really miss my band,” she laughed. But she recovered and continued with her set.
She asked for audience participation in one song, getting everyone to sing a short refrain. After she taught everyone what to sing, she had to stop and rave about how the audience got the correct melody on the first try and sang in tune.
After a short intermission, the T. Buckley Trio took the stage.
Born and raised in Calgary, Tim Buckley performs what he calls “roots” music, along with upright bassist Derek Pulliam and multi-instrumentalist Tim Leacock.
The country influence is very evident, especially in songs like “Country Bound” and one song that references several Hank Williams song titles.
The band had a slow start but perked up the audience with a cover of “Your Cheatin’ Heart” and finally culminated in a standing ovation and calls for an encore.
“I thought they (the audience) were great, really really supportive. For a two o’clock in the afternoon show, there were a lot of people here. They seemed to really enjoy it, so anyone who wants to come out and support a venue like this, and support local touring artists is great,” said lead singer and acoustic guitarist Tim Buckley.
Though someone yelled out, “Play a polka!” they did not oblige, but the audience seemed like they enjoyed the encore anyway.
“It seems at the end they were kind of craving a bit more of that driving honky tonk stuff, so we gave them a little bit of that to finish things off,” said Buckley.
Buckley added since he plays a diverse set of venues, it is always hard to judge what the audience will be like or what they’d rather hear – especially since he hadn’t played in Stettler before.
“It’s always tough to gauge, with rooms like this, what people want...so it’s always a bit of a balancing act, trying to figure out what the right songs are going to be,” said Buckley.
Judging from the applause, it looks like he chose correctly.