by Richard Amery

courtesy of LABEAT.CA

It’s the beginning of February, so it is a good time of the year to sing the blues.

 Fortunately there are a few excellent blues shows happening this week.

 Steve Dawson, who not only produces a lot of Canada’s top roots and blues acts, is also a  multi-instrumentalist and a huge fan of  the Mississippi Sheiks. So he will be bringing a tribute to the the latter to Lethbridge, Feb. 2 at the Southminster United Church.

Dawson, a backing band plus Del Ray, Alvin Youngblood Hart and Jim Byrnes will all be playing their favourite Sheiks songs. The Mississippi Sheiks mostly recorded during the 1930s, but influenced many a blues musician with their blend of delta blues, ragtime, jazz and several other genres.

 Tickets for the show cost $47.50.

The show begins at 8 p.m.

 The other big blues show is  the Todd Wolfe Trio, who play the Slice, Monday, Feb. 6. The New York raised, Los Angeles based guitarist  is best known for play with Sheryl Crow and writing several of her hits with her before she hit it big, but he has a hot new psychedelic blues trio, which make their Lethbridge debut  this week. He will be playing an array of originals, blues classics and psychedelic jams.

Tickets are seven dollars in advance or nine dollars at the door for the show which begins at 9 p.m., Feb. 6.

 There are several other very cool shows this week including Del Barber, who plays the Slice, Feb. 2.

And if you like modern rock, Hedley and guests play the Enmax Centre, Feb.

2 as well.

 In a similar vein, there will be an excellent hard rock show at the Slice, Feb. 3 featuring Mr. Personal, Berserker, Milwaukee Talkie and the Dirti Speshuls.

 There is even a rockabilly show this week as Buzz Elroy and his Hayseed Rockets rock it at the Slice, Feb. 4.

For something completely different, The Lethbridge Symphony presents the Magic Flute at Southminster United Church, Feb. 3-4 featuring members of the University of Lethbridge opera workshop.

 On a non blues related note, Lethbridge College presents their third annual band wars at the Barn, Feb. 3. Diminished 5th, Red Rum Triumph, Berserker, Vista Park, the Ketamines, The Two Tubes, Cosmic Charley, Dead Eye Strobe Lights, Caste of Shadows and Lightworker are all scheduled to perform at the event which begins at 7 p.m.. They will be competing for over $1,000 in cash and prizes, with the winner taking home $800. The runner up receives $200 and Long and McQuade has donated gift certificates for the third through tenth place.

 A panel of judges including Ray Burgess- CLRC The Kodiak; Richard Amery- LA Beat Magazine; Bridgette Yarwood- The Living Luca; Bente Hansen- U of L Music Department; Cameron Skip- Communication Arts will help make the tough decision.

 Also this weekend, Lethbridge blues tinged singer songwriter Leigh Doerksen has a  gig at the Owl Acoustic Lounge, Feb. 4.

 Joel Bryant and Pete Watson will be playing the Owl the night before.

It is also a good week for open mics.

 The New Weather Machine host the Slice’s open mic , tonight beginning at approximately at 9 p.m. There is also a Thursday night open mic at the University of Lethbridge Students Union Zoo, from 5-7:30 p.m. So check that out. And, it being the first Friday of the month, check out a bluegrass jam at the Lethbridge Folk Club’s Wolf‘s Den, Friday night at 7 p.m.

The Galt Museum and Archives and The View are hosting a Valentines High Tea with the Lethbridge Symphony Orchestra.

On Sunday February 12th from 2:30 – 4:00 pm enjoy petit-fours and sandwiches traditional to a high tea prepared by The View’s Calgary Chef. The event will be served in style by Friends and Galt Museum Board members – with romantic musical selections by The Lethbridge Symphony Orchestra. Children are welcome!

In addition to parking at The View, a motor coach will be available to take you to there from the Galt Museum & Archives at 2:00 pm.

A fundraiser presented by the Friends of the Galt in partnership with The View at Lethbridge in support of the Galt Museum’s education initiatives such as the bussing program.

Tickets are $25 and can be purchased at the Galt Museum Store.  FOr more information call 403-320-3954.

Vancouver’s multiplatinum selling chart-toppers, Hedley are back with their fourth studio album, Storms and a cross-Canada tour stopping in Lethbridge on Thursday,  February 16.  

The list of Hedley accolades is long, some recent highlights include: three consecutive double platinum certifications - Hedley (2005), Famous Last Words (2007) and The Show Must Go (2009); over 1,000,000 digital singles sold; 2010 JUNO Award for ‘Video of the Year’ (“Perfect”); ten consecutive #1 Videos at Much Music - a record for any Canadian band; four Top Ten radio singles from The Show Must Go alone (“Perfect”, “Cha-Ching”, “Don’t Talk to Strangers”, “Hands Up”); and listed as one of the top 100 touring artists in the world of 2010 (Pollstar, October 18, 2010).

Tickets go on sale to the general public on  Thursday November 10th.  For tickets call 403-329-SEAT or visit lethbridge.ca/tickets.

On Tuesday January 24th at 7:30 join filmmaker Jeff Chiba- Stearns at the Galt Museum for a screening of his movie One Big Hapa family. The screening will be followed by a question and answer session.

And you thought your family was mixed up! After a realization at a family reunion, filmmaker Jeff Chiba Stearns embarks on a journey of self-discovery to find out why everyone in his Japanese-Canadian family after his grandparents’ generation married interracially. The resulting feature documentary explores why almost 100% of all Japanese-Canadians, the highest out of any other ethnicity in Canada, are marrying interracially and how their mixed children perceive their unique multiracial identities.

Stories from four generations of a Japanese-Canadian family come to life through the use of innovative animation techniques created by some of Canada’s brightest independent animators.

One Big Hapa Family challenges our perceptions of purity and makes us question if mixing is the end of multiculturalism as we know it.

Jeff Chiba Stearns is a multi award-winning independent documentary and animation filmmaker from Kelowna and now Vancouver, B.C., of Japanese and European heritage. A graduate of the Film Animation program at the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, he founded Meditating Bunny Studio Inc., specializing in animation and documentary films along with broadcast and viral commercials for such clients as 3M, Sharpie, and Generali. His films have screened at hundreds of film festivals around the world, garnered 32 awards including the Prix du Public at the prestigious Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival, and broadcast internationally.

In 2010, he was awarded the Emily Award from the Emily Carr University of Art and Design for outstanding achievements of an alumnus. Chiba Stearns was awarded the Cultural Pioneer Award by Harvard University in 2011 for his continued exploration of multiethnic identity in his work. He has also instructed college animation, written articles for national publications and lectured around the world on topics of multiracial identity, cultural awareness, filmmaking, short film distribution, and animation.