Giving their final performance on Saturday (Sept. 8) at the Canmore Legion, local favourites The Shoulder Season are no more.
The event featured performances by three other bands – The Eerie Green, Hillside Collective and The Fragments – and also raised $1250 for the high school SAGE Program.
With The Shoulder Season’s leader, Josh Smith, moving away at the end of this month, the event was a night to pay homage to this band and celebrate the local talent of the Bow Valley.
“It’s called the Bow Valley Mixed Tape and it’s a get-together of friends and musicians who have a Bow Valley connection,” said Smith, at the start of the event. “I’ve been lucky enough with The Shoulder Season to play with a bunch of these bands over the years, and we figured why not put them all together in one room and put it towards a good cause?
“We’ve had a great run as The Shoulder Season, but it’ll be our last show. I’m indebted to all these great musicians that I’ve been able to hang out with and play shows with.”
Smith spoke about the other bands taking part.
“The Eerie Green are Canmore locals – they’ve got this indie pop thing nailed and they’re really up-and-comers as far as indie music goes,” he said. “The Hillside Collective call themselves ‘B-country from K-country’ and are all Kananaskis employees in their day jobs. They play a really awesome old-time country rockabilly-style music.
“The Fragments, they’re from Calgary, and the lead singer Dave and I went to school together,” he added. “They’ve got this nice eclectic art pop sound going on.”
He also spoke about the charity, SAGE (Stoney Adventure Group Experience), which would receive all proceeds from the show.
“SAGE was actually started by Jeff Horvath and he takes Stoney youth out on experiential education and outdoor programming,” said Smith. “They learn all sorts of different skills.”
David Gillan, lead singer for the Hillside Collective, spoke about his band.
“We came out here to play some music – we love to be part of the music scene in Canmore – any opportunity we can to get people to dance and jump around a bit, it’s what we love to do best,” he said. “Essentially, it’s a mix of music with a few different bands coming together – a lot of different influences and styles – we have a good varied crowd and it’s all put together for a great crowd.”
The band was ecstatic to be supporting SAGE, he said
“SAGE is a great charity which gets youth from the Stoney nation out to take part in some team-building activities, outside experiences.”
Taking to the stage first was the Eerie Green, a relatively new band formed by Canmore youth.
“We started playing together a year ago,” said band member Logan Thackray. “We’ve released an EP and we’re planning on having a full-length album in spring.
“I’d say we’re indie folk rock, just a mixture of everything,” she added. “We’re not really a genre, we just play the music that we like.”
The fourth act, The Fragments, is actually a Calgary band, but is connected to the Valley through Smith and the band’s lead singer, David Martin.
“We came together as a whole bunch of different bands and I’d been writing songs for about 10 years that weren’t quite finding a home, so it just happened by accident last year that we got together and started playing,” said Martin. “We take on a lot of different styles – we’ll play indie rock, some jazz, some hokey stuff now and again – and it’s been challenging for us to take on new styles.
“It’s an adventure for us. We’re still pretty new, but it’s coming together good – we want to record pretty soon, that’s in the near future.”
