The Slocan Ramblers: Live in Harrisburg, PA

Slocan Ramblers

“It’s a stormy night, folks.”

As much travelling as we do in our pursuit of great live Canadian music, we also appreciate those shorter drives when some of Canada’s finest make a stop in our part of central PA to share their talents. Better yet, when the touring artist(s) happens to be one of your personal favorite contemporary-modern bluegrass bands – invited to perform locally by the fine folks at the Susquehanna Folk Music Society – you know that an evening in the company of JUNO-nominated band The Slocan Ramblers is simply a no-brainer.

Purchasing our tickets for this show the moment they went on sale back in the summer, we eagerly awaited the opportunity to witness the unrelenting energy and impeccable musicianship of this quartet – a band we will never tire of seeing, and with this being our third encounter with them in the last twelve months both here in the US and up in Canada.  The ensemble of Darryl Poulsen (guitar/vocals), Frank Evans (banjo/vocals), Adrian Gross (mandolin/vocals), and Charles James (upright bass/vocals) had driven north from West Virginia to make this final stop here at the PA state capital, then hotfooting it home to Toronto before embarking on another visit to the US northeast for an early December string of dates.

Slocan Ramblers

“Thanks for coming out on this stormy night,” stated Frank at frequent times during the evening – a recurring joke likely more about the weather they would encounter once closer to home (major snowfalls in western New York) – because on a cold, but very clear and dry November evening last weekend, The Slocan Ramblers very quickly warmed up The Abbey Bar in Harrisburg with a loaded 22-track set of original tunes and traditional bluegrass covers.

Promoting their latest “Up The Hill And Through The Fog” album, several new tunes were shared – offering compositions from Darryl (“You Said Goodbye” & “Bill Fernie”), Adrian (“Harefoot’s Retreat” & “Streetcar Lullaby”), and Frank (“I Don’t Know” & “Platform Four”).  The impetus for “The River Roaming Song” would also be addressed by Adrian. “This song came about after the pandemic hit. All of a sudden, I was home, and I’m lucky enough to live next to a beautiful river right across the street from the house, and as soon as it got warm enough, would take a little folding chair and just go and stick it right in the river and cool my heels,” he offered. “And just try to write, with my notebook and guitar, and that was one of the songs that came out of those writing sessions. They say you write what you know, and at that part of my life, I was just killing time sitting in the river all day.”

Hearing some stunning covers of both popular and lesser-known traditional bluegrass songs at a Slocan Ramblers concert is always pretty much a guarantee, but one of the things that truly sets this band apart from their peers is their willingness to always mix things up – for every one cover you can expect each time they perform, they will likely play something you’ve never previously heard.  It is always a pleasure to enjoy one of their Tom Petty covers, and John Hartford covers – yet on this particular evening, they would both surprise and delight all with previously unheard (for us) versions of tunes from Jerry Garcia & David Grisman, and Grayson & Whitter.  “These old songs, we love it, and we sing a couple of them about travelling the world, and have made their opinion up about what the song is about – a love interest or something else,” Frank explained, when discussing the impact of these songs upon the band. “And usually, the world includes North Carolina to Virginia, or North Carolina to Tennessee. Johnson city to …”  West Virginia was heard from the crowd. “West Virginia?  That’s the whole world, I think,” Frank retorted, eliciting plenty of nods and chuckles from the audience.

Slocan Ramblers

Reminding us once more that this was quite a stormy night, and prior to a performance of “Mighty Hard Road,” Frank took some time to share a comical tale about their 2018 JUNO-nominated “Queen City Jubilee” album. “Toronto is known as The Queen City, but it turns out there are more than one Queen City, and it comes in handy when you’re touring around a new record,” he recalled. “Play Cincinnati and say ‘it’s our new record called Queen City Jubilee’ and hear, ‘alright, named it after our city’ – ‘alright, it’s our favorite city.’  Same thing happened the next night in Chicago. ‘Alright.’ It was unintentional, but it worked out.”

Adrian was happy to admit to the room that the band were on a bit of a John Hartford kick right now, with all four musicians happy to draw the evening to a close with a selection of covers. And, once again, they delivered a combination of what we expected to hear with a surprise offering too – earning plenty of appreciation from the room with their stunning rendition of “Up On The Hill,” complete with some great vocal harmonies. Returning for one final encore number, the quartet sent their audience home with the always-fabulous version of Hartford’s “Them Way Long Time Ago Blues.”  Another solid evening of entertainment from The Slocan Ramblers – a band I’m pretty sure we’ll cross paths with again sometime in 2023.

Set List:

  1. Mississippi Heavy Water Blues
  2. Bill Fernie
  3. Harefoot’s Retreat
  4. I Don’t Know
  5. The River Roaming Song
  6. No Vacancy (Merle Travis cover)
  7. East Virginia Blues (Carter Family cover)
  8. Trouble In Mind (Roscoe Holcomb cover)
  9. Stealin’ (Jerry Garcia & David Grisman cover)
  10. A Mind With A Heart Of It’s Own (Tom Petty cover)
  11. Platform Four
  12. Mighty Hard Road
  13. Fall On My Knees (trad. cover)
  14. Call Me Long Gone (Dave Evans cover)
  15. Last Time You’ll Ever Know My Name (sic)
  16. Streetcar Lullaby
  17. I’ve Always Been A Rambler (Grayson & Whitter cover)
  18. First Girl I Loved (John Hartford cover)
  19. Up On The Hill (John Hartford cover)
  20. Won’t You Come Back Home
  21. Sun’s Gonna Shine In My Back Door Someday

Encore:

  1. Them Way Long Time Ago Blues (John Hartford cover)

The British guy that crossed the ocean and crash landed in central Pennsylvania (to quote Greg Keelor, “And I wonder what am I doing here?”). As the youngest of four siblings, exposure to music from a very early age nurtured my passion and appreciation for many musical genres. Continuing to discover some amazingly diverse and talented musicians based in Canada, I gravitate to live music experiences and remain devoted to spreading the word about such a vibrant music scene.

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