The four musicians who comprise The Travelling Mabels quite likely enjoyed performing in Kamsack last week every bit as much as the audience enjoyed their concert.
A near full house at the Kamsack Playhouse cheered, sang along, laughed and applauded during the concert which was staged November 5, which was the first in a series of four concerts being sponsored in Kamsack by the Kamsack Community Arts Council.
Hearty applause was audience response to all of the numbers sung by the Mabels, which is a band comprised of Eva Levesque, her daughter Suzanne Levesque and their friend Lana Floen. The three women were accompanied by Lana’s husband Keith Floen, on keyboards.
In her upbeat and positive rap between musical selections, Eva, who called herself the “Momma Mabel,” kept the audience laughing with her jokes, many of which elicited severe groans. She said her daughter, the youngest of the group, is the “Baby Mabel,” while Lana, “the attractive one,” is the “Pretty Mabel,” and Keith was called the “Unstable Mabel,” who, in addition to playing keyboards is the manager, roadie, sound and lights man, and does everything else required, from the critical to the mundane.
The group performed several selections from the two CDs which were for sale and Keith, who in his turn in the spotlight, played a piano instrumental and then “brought down the house” as the number morphed into a surprising and vocal rendition of Great Balls of Fire.
Entering the Playhouse, members of the group were heard to remark that “this is beautiful,” and they enjoyed the “ambience of the theatre.”
They said that the Kamsack audience was very good and that it was probably the best crowd they’ve played to during the tour, one of the organizers said.
“They said they liked the small town authenticity,” Nikki Lachambre, chair of the Kamsack Arts Council, said. “They said they appreciated that the acoustics were fantastic.
“They were very gracious and extremely easy to work with,” Lachambre said.
The arts council was pleased with the high turnout, she said. “It was amazing for a Thursday night.”
The next concert in the Stars for Saskatchewan series will be held on December 12, when Jesse Peters will be performing a “vintage Christmas” concert.
“That will be the first time we’ll have had a Christmas-themed concert,” Lachambre said. Peters says his concert will be primarily Christmas, with a “bluesy-pop” feel. His music has been compared to that of Billy Joel.
