Last night, my sweety and I hosted a sold-out house concert by Edmonton-based blues singer/songwriter Danielle Dayton. She is touring Saskatchewan and Manitoba, promoting her latest single, “Lady Luck.” The show in our living room opened with a set of wonderful music by our son, Kieran West.
After our lad’s set, the audience of 30 had time to visit, enjoy snacks, and check out Dayton’s merchandise. Then she and her bass player Ryan Holmes played a terrific set of music. It was a fabulous evening with very talented artists sharing almost all original songs.
I first met Dayton at a full-band show she gave at the Times Change(d) High & Lonesome Club in Winnipeg in September 2019. Kieran opened for her that night also, with the Kieran West Band. She, Ryan, and her then-drummer Allyson (“call me Al”) MacIvor were super friendly with the audience before and after their set, which added to their appeal. They really rocked the place; it was a truly enjoyable show.
In January, Dayton contacted me to see if we would be interested in hosting a house show. Sweety and I hosted one once before, for Corin Raymond, and really enjoyed doing it. Dayton and I talked back and forth for a bit and nailed down a date and details.
Dayton’s set last night included “Cover Me,” which is a fantastic song, a favourite from the September show. I hope Dayton records it soon. The tour continues in Manitoba’s Interlake this weekend and then heads back to Saskatchewan this coming week.
When setting up for the show, Sweety and I agreed we should encourage hand washing or the use of hand sanitizer; it’s always important to do but even more so now, with fears of coronavirus. The healthcare professional in our audience was pleased at our promotion of this important preventative act. As of today, there aren’t any cases of the virus in our province. I wonder what the near future will hold for our population and for public events.
Hosting a house concert is pretty easy. The biggest job is moving furniture around to make the space hold enough people to make it profitable for the performers. Most shows I’ve been to have 20-30 people at them. Guests bring their own drinks, and snacks to share. I highly recommend the experience but if that seems too ambitious, well, you could just go to one. Organizations like HomeRoutes organize a lot of them, though many shows are organized privately and informally, like ours. Tools like Facebook are great for getting the word out, free of charge. Musicians often stay overnight at the host home; it’s a great way to get to know performers in a way that you can’t when seeing them in large venues.
As I mentioned, Dayton is touring to promote “Lady Luck.” It’s a great, bluesy rock tune. She released a promo video of the song with footage from last year’s tour, taken by many different people she met on tour. You can find that video here.
Now you know a little about why this is my song of the day for today. Thanks for joining me here, and please enjoy. Then head over to Dayton’s website, Bandcamp, Apple Music or Spotify to buy her music.
Here’s the official video from Danielle Dayton’s YouTube channel.
Song of the Day for Today 