Over 50 Perogies and Jam fans attended another terrific evening of music at the Vegreville Train Station on February 23 featuring seasoned folk singer Steve Palmer.

Young Cassidy Zahar of Bellis captured the hearts of dinner patrons with her songs from her CD and other artists.  Cassidy started with Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain, followed by Rose Garden by Lynn Anderson, through to Tanya Tucker’s Two Sparrows in a Hurricane, and completed her set with Martina McBride’s Anyway.  Cassidy’s set was a beautiful start to the evening.

Donning his trademark green felt hat, Steve Palmer took the stage with his original song Welcome Back, Come on In, and delighted the audience through two sets of folk, blues, gospel and good old toe tapping and hand clapping tunes.  Steve Palmer is a seasoned professional musician and he was featured twice in 2012 on the CBC Vinyl Café.  His mellow baritone voice and beautiful guitar accompaniment connected warmly with everyone in the room.  Evening favourites included Turn Your Radio On, the Ballad of Teen Age Queen, and Steve’s originals Jesus on Main Street and Calico Girl.  His guitar instrumentals included Cannonball Rag, Jackalope Ramble and Blind Blake’s Rag.  Steve teamed up with Cassidy for I’ll Fly Away and for an encore, finished with the 60’s classic Get Together (by the Youngbloods).  Percussionist, Rob Hughes helped out with the brushes on a couple of numbers in the second set.

Steve Palmer grew up in Edmonton, and spent most of his music career performing in Edmonton and Vancouver, later living on Vancouver Island and more recently moving to Moose Jaw.  His early musical inspirations came from the folk singers of the late 1950’s including The Kingston Trio, Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie.  His music continues to evolve as he explores musical styles and develops as an artist.  He connects with the audience in a meaningful way by tailoring his music presentation as the evening unfolds.   Steve Palmer fans will be pleased to know that he is working on his next CD to be released next February.

For the Open Mic session, local musicians including Lorne Fill, Terry Jordan, Ralph Lange, Rob Hughes (both vocals/guitar and drums), Randy Kereliuk and Lawrence Koncur continued the music momentum of the evening.  Steve and Cassidy joined in on many of the songs including a mellow rendition of Good Night Irene.  Everyone left with melodies dancing in their heads and glowing in the warmth of having spent a wonderful evening together.

Photo Gallery
Images Courtesy of Rob Hughes