Soul Man

A few weeks back my sister Carolyn went to see James Hunter at Dingwalls in London. He sings soul music which he writes himself, plays guitar and has a five piece band backing him - keyboard, drums, string bass, tenor sax and bari sax. She thought he was fantastic and looked at his website, which said the Dingwalls concert was the first in his world tour. Guess where the next place he was playing? The Polish Hall, Edmonton, Alberta. What are the chances of that?

So I went along with Steven and Natalie as that Philistine Richard didn't want to come (although admitedly he'd just spent and hour running around a football pitch - and scored four goals, I must proudly add). The concert was sold out, and the hall was packed. It had been set out with about 30 tables of 10 people, with a dance floor near the stage. Trouble was, the Polish Hall is a bit like a church hall, and there were no candles or decorations on the table to liven the place up.

The scheduling was more English Jazz Club than Canadian Concert. The publicity said 'starts at 7pm'. In fact the doors opened at 7pm, and the support band didn't start until 8.10pm and then played for about 45 minutes. James Hunter then didn't come on until about 9.50pm and played until 11pm. Steve, Natalie and I had agreed to go for dinner afterwards, but thst didn't quite happen. On the plus side, we had plenty of time to get to know the other people on the table.

Despite the ambience of the place, the late start after a long day at work and the lack of dinner, the concert was fantastic. The support band was from Red Deer (half way between Edmonton and Calgary) and played rock and roll type music and was very good. James Hunter was then phenomenal - a voice which reminded me of Marvin Gaye with amazing skill on the guitar and wonderful music. If he comes your way on his world tour, do check him out.