Deadmonton by way of Victoria by way of Whitehorse, James (formerly Alex) Murdoch is well familiar with the Canadian landscape. He fired up his current cross Canada tour promoting his soon to be released sophomore album with a successful opening night in Calgary.

Opening the show was Brock Skywalker, singer for Edmonton based folk rock band Captain Tractor. Based on tonight's collection of songs, the predominant topics Skywalker touches on are hockey and women, or some combination of the two. Sample song titles included "Frozen Puck To The Head" and "Hockey Moms Rule The World". These pleasant Canadian novelty songs came off as quirky and charming at first, but by the end of his half hour set Skywalker had filled his stay.

On the path to reclaiming a solid pop melody from the prefab bands that have hijacked the genre, James and his four piece backing band took the stage at 10:30. It quickly became apparent that Murdoch's ten years of song writing had paid off. The set consisted of tight, concise pop rock songs that drew comparisons to Collective Soul in their commercial prime and current Jim Bryson or Maroon 5 .Whether the Maroon 5 comparison is complimentary is a whole different story. Clearly comfortable in the role of front man, James displayed no shortage of charm and charisma for the majority of the evening.

The show was well received by the near capacity crowd (mostly 30, 40 and 50 something's out for a Friday night pint) for most of the night, and a few of the more upbeat numbers even got the aged out on the floor for a hip shake and head bob.

Highlights of the show included the soon to be released single "Believe", which, as Murdoch explained, deals with Murdoch's response to realizing that an American major label that had been courting him was actually hoping for him to join a boy band. Lucky for us, he politely declined. Skywalker joined the band for a couple of the slower numbers, adding a subtle yet welcome touch of accordion. A rocked up makeover of Beatles classic "With A Little Help From My Friends", which drew the biggest response of the night, successfully displayed Murdoch's warm, inviting voice. A cover of Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On" didn't fare quite as well. Best leave this number to the likes of Mr. Jack Black. The hour long show was capped off with "Mystery", an amiable nugget of potential CanCon gold.

Unfortunately, instead of simply playing a two or three song encore, the band announced that they would play another full set. This proved to be ill advised. As a great comedian once said, "You gotta' leave 'em wanting more". Ten minutes into the follow up set the crowd was noticeably thinning.

While Murdoch's style of music isn't exactly cutting edge, for what it is, it's pretty bloody decent. This can be attested to by a table full of 22 year old beer swilling students singing his praises while 55 year old accountant types danced up a storm. Those American record execs that only saw him as a player in a second tier boy band will be kicking themselves next time they give James Murdoch a listen.

Elsewhere

By Kevin Halpin
Photos : Andy Scheffler
Published : April 22, 2004.