Recording: The Holy Oak Family Singers

Artist: The Holy Oak Family Singers

Songs: Stay Loose [vox by Ben Gunning] + Only Love Would Know [vox by Felicity Williams + Thom Gill] + If You Could Read My Mind [vox by Tamara Lindeman] + I'll Tag Along [vox by Luke Kuplowsky] [all songs composed by Gordon Lightfoot]

Recorded at The Burdock Music Hall, August 13, 2018.

The Holy Oak Family Singers - Stay Loose

The Holy Oak Family Singers - Only Love Would Know

The Holy Oak Family Singers - If You Could Read My Mind

The Holy Oak Family Singers - I'll Tag Along

You never know what you have 'til it's gone. When the beloved Holy Oak was in full swing, "family" events like this were a regular occurrence, with some of the locals who used it as their hub banding together to cover musicians ranging from Prince to Mary Margaret O'Hara. The bonds of comradeship have transcended the loss of the venue, but events like this are a bit rarer on the ground these days. It has to be said that this was entirely too good a show for a Monday night, but it just might be impossible to gather these busy pros together on any other night of the week.

The instrumental core — Evan Cartwright (drums), Ben Whiteley (bass), Christine Bougie (lap steel), Ben Gunning (electric guitar), Luke Kuplowsky (acoustic guitar) and Thom Gill (keyb) — served as session aces for an all-star team of vocalists, including the latter three instrumentalists plus Tamara Lindeman, Felicity Williams, Robin Dann and Alex Lukashevsky. There were plenty of hits essayed, from "Every Highway" to "Rainy Day People", but the group here dug deeper as well, showing a special affection for the less-popular 80's Gord, including his '86 East of Midnight album, and demonstrating that the craft and wisdom in those compositions is on par with the better-known stuff.