It wasn’t the first time Blake Berglund had found himself booked in the same city as Lynyrd Skynyrd, it happened about six years ago in British Columbia, he said.
So while the heavy rock band blasted away at Affinity Place, Berglund tended to an appreciative audience of about 50 people in the Estevan Art Gallery and Museum as part of their After Dark series of concerts.
Joined by lead guitarist Bryce Lewis and drummer Steve Leidal, Berglund offered up a good sampling of his own compositions, others written in collaboration with country and western artists and a sprinkling of cover tunes to keep the variety flowing.
Berglund quickly put his audience at ease with a couple of his recognized songs, Taxes, Death and You and Hanging by a Thread.
Between songs, Berglund recounted a few stories from the road, something he has travelled extensively over the past few years including several appearances in the Maritimes this past winter to entertain at the Premiers’ Conference in Prince Edward Island and then on to Halifax and other locales.
A ranch kid from Kennedy, “Blake was always organizing us, making us play farm with him, or getting a group together to do something. He didn’t spend a lot of time alone,” joked his sister Jody, one of three other siblings in the Berglund family, who spoke with the Mercury during the intermission.
Making full use of Lewis’s expertise on lead guitar, the trio gave forth some soulful renditions including Empty Horses, an Ian Tyson tune as well as, High Water and Hell.
One of Berglund’s up-tempo tunes, Come Back Around, which has gained a lot of radio play, ended the first segment of the evening’s program.
The influences of other artists and musical groups was evident in the second-half of the show with some of the songs taking on a near-jazz undertone.
Berglund, who has collaborated with the Regina soft rock group Rah Rah, told a few more stories about how collaboration efforts often turn into songs that no one expected.
And that was the magic of music.
“I work with others as much as I can,” he said. That includes his significant partner Belle Plaine, the talented performer from Fosston who he is not only dating, but also working with on a number of tunes. In fact, he reported, they would be working and travelling together in Australia within 72 hours, following attendance at a wedding of a friend.
The stories continued as the evening moved along, including tales of a tour Berglund took with Estevan singer/songwriter Chris Henderson and Juno nominee Jess Moskaluke a couple of winters ago. The Grass Roots and Cowboy Boots tour took them to several venues throughout western Canada.
A few songs from his latest album, recorded live in Jasper, Alta., including Word’s Getting Around, which again featured Lewis’s guitar renderings, brought the evening to a close.
The Saskatchewan outlaw, as he has been labelled, was at his best in the Energy City, and he noted near the end, he needed to come to Chris Henderson’s home town and set the record straight on a few of the stories Henderson told “on me” about the road well travelled together.
