The audience at Cornerstone Theatre was held spell bound by the performance of Manitoba Hal on Friday, June 7. Hosted by the Sustainability Project, this guitarist, songwriter and ukuleleplayer used a combination of looping technology to create a concert few will forget. His sense of humour and interactive style combined with finger picking and strumming, had toes tapping and folks singing along to his fresh and original songs and arrangements of traditional blues. With a wide variety of songs and unique sounds, Manitoba Hal undoubtably had folks thinking about signing up for classes at the next Kenosee Lake Kitchen Party.
Saturday afternoon Hal did a workshop at the Sustainability Project office and led six ukulele players of varying skill levels through a 12-bar blues progression.
At the end of the two hours, it was obvious that he is as skilled a teacher as he is a performer. While I have no skills at guitar or ukulele, and know next to nothing about reading sheet music, the advancement of the students was obvious, even to my untrained ear.
If you missed the chance to attend this concert, you most definitely will want to get tickets for his next one. You won’t be sorry!
